Maryjo
Feminine
The Southern double name is a grammatical unit, not two names. Mary Jo, Betty Sue, Billy Ray and Bobby Lee are said whole every time, cannot be shortened to the first part, and are not nicknames. Outsiders consistently misread them as a first name plus a middle one.
How old is the name Maryjo?
Maryjo first appears in US birth records in 1915 — 110 years ago. The typical Maryjo alive today was born around 1960, making them about 65 years old. About 5,700 people named Maryjo are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Maryjo most popular?
Maryjo peaked in 1960, reaching #576 nationally. Today it ranks #9457, 8,881 places below that high. See the whole 1960 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Miryam to Maryjo
The story of Maryjo
The double name is a real feature of Southern American English and it behaves differently from a first name with a middle name. It is used in full in every context, including by the bearer; it cannot be reduced to the first element without changing who is being addressed; and it is often given as a unit on the birth certificate. Mary Jo, Mary Beth, Betty Sue, Anna Lee, Bobby Joe, Billy Ray and John Wayne all work this way. Linguists studying the pattern note that the second element is usually a single short syllable and that the whole has a fixed rhythm, which is why substituting a different second name produces a different name rather than a variant. The Social Security record has one field, so families writing the two words on the form produce a single string, which is why Maryjo, Marylou and Bettysue all hold ranks of their own.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Maryjo joins Mary, from Hebrew Miryam, whose meaning is genuinely unknown, to Jo, a short form of Josephine or Joanna and ultimately of Hebrew Yosef and Yochanan. Neither element is doing independent work: the compound functions as a single name. The American record collapses the space between them. The peak is 1960.
How the name formed
- Miryam
- Mary
- Maryjo
Related forms: Mary Jo · Marijo
Pronouncing Maryjo
MAIR-ee-joh
Three syllables with the main stress on the first and a secondary stress on the last. It is said as one unit, not as two separate names.
Nicknames for Maryjo
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1915
- Most girls named
- 1960293 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #576reached in 1960
- Change vs 2023
- −41.2%10 in 2025, from 17
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Maryjo in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Mary Jo in English — spelling variant
- Marijo in English — spelling variant
Maryjos among us
people named Maryjo are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 160,727 born in 2025 was named Maryjo
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Beaulah test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Maryjo's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Beaulah climbed just as high around 1900, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Beaulah's path sketches the road Maryjo is walking now.
Maryjo sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Maryjo beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Maryjo in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Both elements are complete names in their own right.
- Jo and MJ are both available as short forms.
- The rhythm is fixed and easy to say.
- Written as one word it will be split by many systems.
- The pattern is strongly regional.
- The 1960 peak places it in the mid-century.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Maryjo
Feminine · #9457 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Maryjos are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,700 people named Maryjo are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Maryjo in 2025?
- Maryjo ranks #9457 among US girl names in 2025, with 10 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Maryjo?
- About 1 in every 160,727 US girls born in 2025 was named Maryjo — 10 in all.
- Will my child share the name Maryjo with classmates?
- Maryjo will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Maryjo
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Leta#9457 · Inga#9457 · Delphia#9457 · Cammie#9457 · Lisandra#9457 · Amee#9457 · Venecia#9457 · Annetta#9457
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Maryjo? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Maryjo and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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