Jo

Originally a shortened form of names like Josephine or Joan, the monosyllable emerged in English and Scots as an affectionate domestic address. Louisa May Alcott gave the truncated spelling its defining literary role in 1868 with the ink-stained writer Jo March in Little Women. American parents began entering it on birth records as an independent given name in 1881, letting it stand alone without formal ornamentation.

The name reads as someone who sees little point in paying for a second syllable. It belongs to the mid-1950s, having peaked in 1954 alongside two-tone sedans and laminate countertops. The average bearer is seventy-two years old and tends to run committee meetings with a mechanical pencil. She remains one of the few people capable of endorsing a paper check in less than one second.