Joanna or Joanne?

[boxersuser23]

Or both too dated??

I am a Joanna! So rare to see it appear on this board. I hated it growing up but now I actually really love it. Hate Jo or Joanne though which people frequently call me. I actually (politely) correct people if they use those.

Waves at the other Joannas :)

@Sunflowersinthewind 👋

No. Use Josephine.

I really like Joanne, Joanna and Jo. The ones I've known have all been lovely! It's true it peaked in the seventies but as soon as you know a young one that'll change your perception 🙂 (I'm thinking of the young Peter, Ralph, Tim, Louise and Evelyn I know!)

Personally I wouldn't choose Johanna due to the uncertainty about pronunciation, and it's bound to get misspelled.

I love the name Joanna, but don't like Joanne at all.
Not sure how that works, but the "a" ending makes it for me!
I'm the same with Isabella over Isabelle.

I love Joanna Lumley.
Joanna is a great name.
I like Joanne and Josephine but Joanna and Johanna are better.

I really like Joanna.

I like both, nice choices

Joanna is nice

Both lovely. Slight preference for Joanna.

I wouldn’t worry about it being dated - names come round again. In 30 years time Ada, Ava, Archie, Elsie, Isla, Olivia, Tilly, Freya etc will seem dated as a lot of the people with those names will be approaching 40 (same as every other girl I went to school with in the 90s/00s was a Sarah, Chloe, Hannah, Becky/Rebecca, Abigail, Grace, Katie, Lauren). Obviously a lot of these names have been widely used for centuries but there will always be a cluster due to trends in popularity. Look at how the ‘old people’ names have come back - Margot, Elsie, Stanley, Edith, variants on Reggie etc. Elsie could be 5 or 85. There’s a very real chance that the next trend will be the more 70s inspired names as babies are named after their grandparents, the 40s-50s names become a bit too overdone etc - a baby Joanne/Joanna could be ahead of the curve!

Like most people on here I prefer Joanna, also like Josephine, Joan(/Joanie), Josie etc. If you like the name I wouldn’t write it off based on concerns about dating as it’s something we have no control over as individuals!

If you like the name I wouldn’t write it off based on concerns about dating as it’s something we have no control over as individuals!
We do, in that if a name became wildly popular out of nowhere then dropped out of favour after a few years, chances are it won't age well and won't come back.
Example: Babies called Shannon in England & Wales since 1996 (darkgreener.com)

I don't think you'd find many 85 year old Elsies. They were Betty in that era.

Joanna.

I wouldn’t write any name off tbh (other than those that have evolved to mean something else/become too associated with a notable historical figure - can’t see Fanny or Adolph having a moment for example). Margot would have been seen as very 70s/dated in the 90s but thanks to a few celeb baby names/famous people it’s now back up in the charts. A Shannon in a popular tv show etc could easily see it coming back (people named their kids after game of thrones characters after all).

I also disagree with your Elsie/Betty comment - between myself and DH we have a couple in the family in that age bracket and I’ve spent much of my career working in care of the elderly where it was common. Appreciate it might be a regional thing though!

Joanna here 👋🏻 I like my name as there are not many of us about however I'm not keen on Jo and often get called Joanne even by relatives I find people in general are lazy with the "a" and I rarely get my name said correctly straight away. Correcting people does get tiresome - my parents were going to call me Joanne but the lovely Scottish obstetrician who delivered me said Joanna was much nicer and hence it was chosen!

I think Joan/Joanie/Josephine are all more trendy these days, but i do like Joanna. I've never liked Joanne much.

@user1775 By that logic Princess Anne has a working class name and should have been called Anna? How embarrassing.

Absolutely too dated. I was named Joanna in the nineties and it was a decade too dated for a baby then. It definitely hasn't come back round for another turn yet.

Out of the two, Joanna. Joanne is even more dated, at least the "a" ending is in keeping with modern name trends.

Joanna is lovely. Can be shortened to Jo or Anna

I’m a Joanna and I do like my name. I’m in my 40s. Plenty of Joannes among my peers at school but I was the only Joanna.

But I LOATHE it when people call me Joanne or Jo - but one or both happens at least once a week. Worth bearing in mind.

Joanna is lovely
I don’t like Jo as a shortform for a woman though, so that would put me off - but I do know one Joanna nn Jojo which I do like,

Joanne is dated and a bit low end. It’s like Julia vs Julie

I'm a Joanna but really a Jo. I absolutely hated my name as a kid and not hugely in love with it now. I'm often called Joanne or it's mispronounced as Jo-wanna and weirdly people often ask me to spell it.

Joanna is lovely and a refreshing change from the popular names around now. Saying it's dated doesn't really make sense.

I don't mind either, they'll end up being called Jo either way.

I'm a Joanne and I was born in the 90's.

Makes me a but sad no one likes my name tbh!