Jose
Masculine · “he will add”
Jose is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 592,512 boys against 4,220 girls since 1880. See Jose as a girl name
Jose is the Spanish and Portuguese Joseph, and one of the most used names in the Spanish-speaking world. On American paperwork it usually appears stripped of its accent, and that small loss is a whole story in itself: a name crossing between two systems of writing and leaving one mark behind.
How old is the name Jose?
Jose was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Jose alive today was born around 1992, making them about 33 years old. About 518,000 people named Jose are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jose most popular?
Jose peaked in 2004, reaching #28 nationally. Today it ranks #95, 67 places below that high. See the whole 2004 chart.
Jose appears on these lists:
- Short and sweet: names of four letters or fewer
- America's top 100 names right now
- The steadiest names in America
- Millennial names (born 1981–1996)
- Generation Z names (born 1997–2012)
- Names with only one spelling
- all guides
Works in Spanish & Latino families too:
Where it comes from
From Yosef to Jose
The story of Jose
Latin Iosephus gave Old Spanish Josep, and Spanish then dropped the final consonant and settled on Jose. The letter j did the interesting part. In medieval Spanish the sound written j or x was the sh of English ship, so the name was once said something like sho-SEP; between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that sound moved back into the throat, becoming the h Spanish uses now, and the spelling stayed exactly where it was. Portuguese took the same name and went the other way, softening the front to a zh and nasalising the end. Galician still writes it Xose, preserving the older sound in its older letter.
Meaning
he will add
From the Hebrew Yosef, through Greek Ioseph and Latin Iosephus into Spanish. The reading has not been seriously disputed.
How the name formed
- Yosef
- Ioseph
- Iosephus
- Josep
- Jose
Related forms: Joseph · Giuseppe · Josef · Josep · Xose · Yosef
Pronouncing Jose
ho-SEH
Two syllables with the weight at the back and a throaty h at the front. Portuguese says it closer to zhoo-ZEH. American English generally settles on hoh-ZAY, which no Spanish speaker would use but which every Jose in the country answers to.
Nicknames for Jose
High
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 199812,374 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #28reached in 2004
- Change vs 2022
- −8.8%3,678 in 2025, from 4,031
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.
Jose in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Joseph in English — same name
- Giuseppe in Italian — same name
- Josef in German — same name
- Josep in Catalan — same name
- Xose in Galician — spelling variant
- Yosef in Hebrew — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Joses among us
people named Jose are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 464 born in 2025 was named Jose
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 Randy test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jose's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Randy climbed just as high around 1956, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Randy's path sketches the road Jose is walking now.
Jose has held the top-100 across 7 different decades — it has never depended on fashion, and names like that read the same at any age.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Jose is headed
Jose should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Jose beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jose in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is understood on sight across the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking world and needs no translation in either.
- It carries a settled Spanish short form, Pepe, and an English one, Joe, so the same person can be addressed naturally in both languages.
- Four letters, two syllables, no silent letters in any language that uses it.
- It has an unbroken run in American records from the first year names were counted.
- Written without its accent, as American forms usually leave it, the stress drifts to the front and readers who do not know the name mispronounce it.
- It is recorded for a small number of girls, usually inside a compound such as Maria Jose, so the spelling alone does not settle who is meant.
- In many Spanish-speaking families the name is expected as a compound, Jose Luis or Jose Maria, and standing alone it can read as incomplete.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Jose to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Jose
Masculine · #95 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Joses are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 518,000 people named Jose are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Jose in 2025?
- Jose ranks #95 among US boy names in 2025, with 3,678 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Jose?
- About 1 in every 464 US boys born in 2025 was named Jose — 3,678 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jose with classmates?
- Jose will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jose
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Emiliano#94 · Christian#96 · Kai#93 · Eithan#97 · Robert#92 · Archer#98 · Ryan#99 · Leonardo#91
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jose? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jose and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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