Is it surprising that we've never had a president named Joe until today?

[Never Made it to Graceland]

We have had many opportunities to elect a Joe. This is the first time in history we are getting a Joe. Thoughts?

[RFK Jr.’s Brain Worm]

It’s gonna be a weird four (eight?) years for me because my first name isn’t actually Fubart.

[Battista Minola 1616]

It’s gonna be a weird four (eight?) years for me because my first name isn’t actually Fubart.

Sacramento Joe

[RFK Jr.’s Brain Worm]

It’s gonna be a weird four (eight?) years for me because my first name isn’t actually Fubart.

Sacramento Joe

I’d propose that we all call him Scranton Joe or Diamond Joe, but his career is twenty years older than me, so I guess I don’t get dibs.

[Mr. Smith]

Never had a Smith presidency either, the most common American last name...never elected at all.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

huh i thought his first name was Uncle

[Middle-aged Europe]

Before Biden, there were only Democratic vice presidential nominess named "Joe". And with the exception of Biden in 2008 and 2012 they all failed to get elected:

- 1860: Joe Lane (southern Democrats, Breckinridge's running mate)
- 1928: Joe Robinson
- 2000: Joe Lieberman
- 2008/2012: Joe Biden


But I certainly look forward to the presidency of "Average" Joe Smith (Patriot Party-West Virginia), 2073-2077.

[Alben Barkley]

Never had a Smith presidency either, the most common American last name...never elected at all.

Would have happened in 1932 if Al Smith beat FDR for the nomination.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Not really. I don't associate Joe as being a name that was particularly common until the 20th century.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Not really. I don't associate Joe as being a name that was particularly common until the 20th century.

Never had a Smith presidency either, the most common American last name...never elected at all.

There was LDS founder Joseph Smith, who was assassinated when running for President in 1844.

[Big Abraham]

I find it even better that his wife's name is Jill. We literally have Joe & Jill, the two most nondescript names in the English language

[Progressive Pessimist]

Not really. I don't associate Joe as being a name that was particularly common until the 20th century.

Never had a Smith presidency either, the most common American last name...never elected at all.

There was LDS founder Joseph Smith, who was assassinated when running for President in 1844.

That's right. I completely forgot about him.

[MarkD]

Joe is such a common and biblical name.

So is Mark.

We've had Presidents with first names as odd as Rutherford and Barack, but no Joes and no Marks.

Huh!

[DINGO Joe]

I approve

[Roll Roons]

Kind of. It's actually always been a common name - certainly far more so than Grover, Millard or Rutherford. But we've only had 46 presidents, and with such a tiny sample size, you can get weird results.

[RFK Jr.’s Brain Worm]

Kind of. It's actually always been a common name - certainly far more so than Grover, Millard or Rutherford. But we've only had 46 presidents, and with such a tiny sample size, you can get weird results.

Some of them went by their middle names. Woodrow instead of Thomas and Grover instead of Stephen come to mind.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Joseph feels kind of like "a Catholic name" to me--of course not as distinctively so as, say, Francis or Anthony or Teresa, but still a little less WASPy than George or John or William.

[Never Made it to Graceland]

Joseph feels kind of like "a Catholic name" to me--of course not as distinctively so as, say, Francis or Anthony or Teresa, but still a little less WASPy than George or John or William.

I was thinking this. Also, kind of a blue collar name as well. Most presidents had upper class backgrounds. Hence the George, John, Thomas, Franklin, Theodore, James, etc.

[afleitch]

Joseph feels kind of like "a Catholic name" to me--of course not as distinctively so as, say, Francis or Anthony or Teresa, but still a little less WASPy than George or John or William.

My nana is Teresa and there's a tradition of Margarets, Bridgets, Batholomews etc. Andrew (my dad's name) wasn't sufficiently Catholic enough so I got Francis as a middle name. There were two John Paul's at my school.

Saint name exclusivity died out just a few years after I was born, but maybe that's a Scottish thing.