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The name Joy peaked for boys at #785 in 1904. Joy is also used for girls, ranking #419 in 2025.

The name Joy is a girl's name of English origin meaning "joy".

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Joy is from an older generation of word names, which also included Merry, Bliss, and Glory -- all of which exert a certain amount of personality pressure on a child. However, Joy, like Grace, Hope, and Rose, has crossed more into name-territory than other word choices, which lightens some of that pressure.
<br/><br/>Joy began to be used as a name by the seventeenth century Puritans, with the idea of "being joyful in the Lord." It came into more general use in the late nineteenth central, part of the revival of virtue names. Her high point was in 1974, when she reached Number 109 on the <a href="https://nameberry.com/popular-names">popular names</a> charts. Joy has also been often used as a middle name. Two recent bearers: comedian/TV personality Joy Behar and Joy Mangano, the inventor whose life was the basis of Oscar-nominated biopic <em>Joy</em>, starring Jennifer Lawrence.

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The name Joy is currently ranked #419 in U.S. births. and peaked for girls at #109 in 1974. The name is most popular in JOY, JOY, and JOY. Joy is occasionally used for boys in 2025.

Joie

Year	US rank	Births	Per million
2014	#4,323	23	12
2015	—	0	0
2016	—	0	0
2017	—	0	0
2018	—	0	0
2019	—	0	0
2020	—	0	0
2021	—	0	0
2022	#4,929	20	11.5
2023	—	0	0
2024	#4,952	20	11.6
2025	#3,993	27	15.8

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