Joesph
Masculine · “Hebrew "he will add”
Joesph is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 15,650 boys against 12 girls since 1880.
Joesph is Joseph with two letters transposed, and it reached #419 in 1955 — which means several thousand American boys were legally registered under a typing error. It is one of the clearest examples of a data artifact that became, for the people who carry it, a real name.
How old is the name Joesph?
Joesph first appears in US birth records in 1881 — 144 years ago. The typical Joesph alive today was born around 1963, making them about 62 years old. About 10,500 people named Joesph are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Joesph most popular?
Joesph peaked in 1955, reaching #419 nationally. Today it ranks #7194, 6,775 places below that high. See the whole 1955 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yosef to Joesph
Our story of Joesph
The Social Security data files by string, which means it records every misspelling as a distinct name — and misspellings of very large names are themselves large. Joseph was a top-twenty American boys' name throughout the twentieth century, so even a small error rate produces a substantial count: Joesph peaks at #419 in 1955, higher than most deliberately chosen names ever reach. The mechanism is simple and entirely mechanical. A clerk types e before s; nobody checks; the certificate is issued; and the child grows up spelling his name that way because that is what the document says. Similar entries exist for Micheal, Chirstopher and Jospeh. What makes them worth a page rather than a footnote is that they are not errors from the bearer's point of view — a name is what is on the paperwork, and for several thousand men it is this.
Meaning
Hebrew "he will add"
Joseph is from Yosef, a verb form meaning he will add or may he add, and Genesis gives the naming explicitly — Rachel names her son asking God to add another. The etymology is settled. Joesph has no separate meaning; it is the same name with the p and h moved.
How the name formed
- Yosef
- Joseph
- Joesph
Related forms: Joseph · יוֹסֵף (Yosef) · José
Pronouncing Joesph
JOH-suf
Two syllables, stress on the first, said exactly like Joseph. The transposition is invisible in speech, which is precisely why it survives on paperwork — nobody hears the error.
Nicknames for Joesph
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1881
- Most boys named
- 1955305 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #419reached in 1955
- Change vs 2022
- −31.3%11 in 2025, from 16
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Joesph in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Joseph in English — spelling variant
- יוֹסֵף (Yosef) in Hebrew — related form
- José in Spanish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Joesphs among us
people named Joesph are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 155,280 born in 2025 was named Joesph
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Olen test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Joesph's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Olen climbed just as high around 1913, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Olen's path sketches the road Joesph is walking now.
Joesph sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Joesph beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Joesph in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The underlying name has one of the most settled etymologies in the Bible.
- Joe and Joey are entirely unaffected and work normally.
- It is genuinely rare on paper while being completely ordinary aloud.
- It will be corrected to Joseph by every person and every spellchecker.
- The spelling has to be defended constantly on documents.
- It carries no meaning of its own beyond Joseph's.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Joesph
Masculine · #7194 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Joesphs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 10,500 people named Joesph are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Joesph in 2025?
- Joesph ranks #7194 among US boy names in 2025, with 11 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Joesph?
- About 1 in every 155,280 US boys born in 2025 was named Joesph — 11 in all.
- Will my child share the name Joesph with classmates?
- Joesph will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Joesph
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Junius#7194 · Orie#7194 · Shade#7194 · Chesley#7194 · Lofton#7194 · Macon#7194 · Landis#7194 · Benjiman#7194
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Joesph? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Joesph and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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