My mother chose my name because it was the shortest one she could find in our language. Interestingly, there are even shorter names than mine, according to the US Social Security database. Naturally, I became curious about those with just two letters and why parents chose such brief names.

Which two-letter names are the most popular?

It's also likely that you were assigned female at birth. Given the current life expectancy of 76 years, the ratio of female Jos to male Jos is quite pronounced.

Many two-letter names, like Jo, started as abbreviations of longer names. But what happened to those original, longer versions? Is there a correlation between Jo's golden era and the rise or decline of its antecedents?

When Jo was popular, Josephine was not... but Jo and Joanne peaked together

Jo was quite popular between 1940 and 1960. By 1980, she had almost faded into oblivion, while Josephine was about to make her comeback.

Although Joanne was never as picked as Jo, she was around during the same period. Other “Jo-“ names too. The only exception was Joan, who surpassed Jo at its peak.

Joan was always more popular than Jo, but they were both trendy during the same years

Joan might provide insights into these trends and their correlations. And not any Joan, this Joan. Is it a coincidence that 1954, the year when thousands named their baby girls Jo, was also the year Jo(hnny Guitar), starring Jo(an Crawford), was released?