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Girl · English
Joy
Say it: JOY
Meaning
From the English word joy, from Old French joie.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
Occasionally used in medieval England, it returned as a virtue name in the 19th century.
Its wave through time
Most used in the 1970s
In the United States
- 139,577 babies given this name since 1883
- At its height in 1974, about 1 in 532 girls
- 796 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Joye
Famous bearers
- Joy Adamson, author of Born Free
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- English poll taxes and lay subsidy rolls (13th and 14th centuries)
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.