Josef
Masculine · “he will add”
Josef is Joseph with a German ending, and the f rather than the ph is the whole difference. It is the standard form across Germany, Austria, Czechia, Scandinavia and much of central Europe, and it reached America with all of them.
How old is the name Josef?
Josef first appears in US birth records in 1900 — 125 years ago. The typical Josef alive today was born around 1993, making them about 32 years old. About 8,100 people named Josef are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Josef most popular?
Josef peaked in 1984, reaching #663 nationally. Today it ranks #2833, 2,170 places below that high. See the whole 1984 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yosef to Josef
The story of Josef
Joseph runs through the Hebrew Bible — Jacob's son, sold into Egypt and risen there — and through the gospels, where it belongs to the carpenter. That double presence made it one of the most given names in Christian Europe. German, Czech, Polish, Danish and Swedish all settled on Josef with an f; Spanish took José, Italian Giuseppe, Russian Iosif. The Josef spelling reached the United States with central European and Scandinavian emigration and has stayed with those families rather than crossing into general use.
Meaning
he will add
Hebrew Yosef means 'he will add' or 'may he add'. Genesis supplies the scene: Rachel names the child and asks for another son. The ph in the English Joseph is a Greek and Latin convention for a Hebrew letter, and German and Czech spelling simply write the sound they hear. The meaning is identical.
How the name formed
- Yosef
- Ioseph
- Joseph
- Josef
Related forms: Joseph · José · Giuseppe · Iosif · József · Yosef
Pronouncing Josef
YO-zef
Two syllables, stress on the first. German says the J as a Y and the s as a z. American English says JOE-sef, with an English J, and both are widely heard in families that carry the name here.
Nicknames for Josef
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
- 1900
- Most boys named
- 2005218 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #663reached in 1984
- Change vs 2023
- −27.9%44 in 2025, from 61
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.
Josef in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Joseph in English — spelling variant
- José in Spanish — same name
- Giuseppe in Italian — same name
- Iosif in Russian — same name
- József in Hungarian — spelling variant
- Yosef in Hebrew — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, California, Texas.
Josefs among us
people named Josef are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 38,820 born in 2025 was named Josef
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Josef
- #2833
- Josef on the 2025 chart
- #32
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Josef went to 44 boys in 2025, but Joseph is the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 7,364, which makes it the 32nd most-given boys’ name of the year — 2,801 places above the chart.
- Joseph7,303
- Josef44
and 1 rarer spelling.
About 1 boy in 232 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 38,820 for Josef itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Brook test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Josef's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Brook climbed just as high around 1961, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Brook's path sketches the road Josef is walking now.
Josef 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
Where Josef is headed
Josef should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Josef beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Josef in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One of the most widely used names in the Western world, recognized everywhere without explanation.
- Joe, Sepp and Pepa are established short forms in three different languages.
- The spelling is phonetic in German and unambiguous in English.
- Joseph is the standard English spelling and this one will be corrected on forms.
- The J is said two ways depending on who is reading it, so the child will answer to both.
- It carries a distinctly central European flavor, which is either the point or something to weigh.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Josef
Masculine · #2833 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Josefs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 8,100 people named Josef are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Josef?
- Josef is one of 2 recorded spellings. Joseph is the more common one — 7,303 births in 2025 against 44 for Josef.
- How popular is the name Josef in 2025?
- Josef ranks #2833 among US boy names in 2025, with 44 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Josef?
- About 1 in every 38,820 US boys born in 2025 was named Josef — 44 in all.
- Will my child share the name Josef with classmates?
- Josef will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Josef
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Bayron#2833 · Odysseus#2833 · Mahlon#2833 · Ward#2833 · Jarvis#2833 · Abriel#2833 · Alain#2833 · Braiden#2833
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Josef? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Josef 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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