Jo

Where Jo comes from

Clipping or hypochoristic form of various female given names beginning with Jo..., primarily Joan, Joanna, etc. but also Josephine and Jolene. Doublet of Ivanka, Jan, Janelle, Janet, Janey, Janine, Jeanette, Jeanie, Jeannette, Jeannine, Jen, Jenna, Jenny, Jessie, Jody, Juanita, Shanae, Sinead, and Vanna in reference to the first derivation.
— Wiktionary's entry for Jo
  • 1 syllable
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1881
    First appearance
    #830 among girls, 5 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1915
    Jo Van Fleet born
    American actress
  3. 1947
    Peak, #51
    6,724 babies named Jo — more than any year before or since.
  4. 1960
    Jo Nesbø born
    Norwegian novelist, musician and economist
  5. 1961
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #152.
  6. 2011
    Mostly girls from here
    Until now more boys than girls got the name; from this year it's the other way round, and has stayed that way.
In the dictionary
  • A female given name.
Namesakes
  • Jo Nesbø · Norwegian novelist, musician and economist, born 1960
  • Jo Van Fleet · American actress, 1915–1996
  • Jo Jorgensen · American politician, 2020 Libertarian Party presidential candidate, born 1957
  • Jo Swinson · British politician and leader of the Liberal Democrats, born 1980
  • Jo Stafford · American singer, 1917–2008

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.