Josefina
Feminine · “he will add”
Josefina is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 13,932 girls against 35 boys since 1880.
Josefina is the Spanish feminine of Joseph, and the Hebrew is a sentence Rachel spoke — may the Lord add another son.
How old is the name Josefina?
Josefina first appears in US birth records in 1887 — 138 years ago. The typical Josefina alive today was born around 1964, making them about 61 years old. About 9,600 people named Josefina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Josefina most popular?
Josefina peaked in 1930, reaching #468 nationally. Today it ranks #1880, 1,412 places below that high. See the whole 1930 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yosef to Josefina
The story of Josefina
Joseph's story fills a quarter of Genesis. Feminines multiplied across Europe — Josephine, Giuseppina, Josefina. Napoleon's Joséphine made the French form famous. Josefina is standard across Spain and Latin America, and Spanish-speaking families brought it to the United States, where it is in current use.
Meaning
he will add, may God increase
Through Joseph, from the Hebrew Yosef, from yasaf, 'to add'. Genesis gives Rachel's words as the reason for the name. The -ina is a Spanish and Italian feminine diminutive. The gloss is in the biblical text, which makes the etymology unusually secure.
How the name formed
- Yosef
- Josephus
- Josefina
Related forms: Josefina · Josefina · Giuseppina · Josefina
Pronouncing Josefina
hoh-seh-FEE-nah
Four syllables, stress on the third. Spanish gives the J an h sound; English speakers usually say joh-.
Nicknames for Josefina
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
- 1887
- Most girls named
- 1929202 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #468reached in 1930
- Change vs 2022
- +4.0%104 in 2025, from 100
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.
Josefina in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Josefina in Spanish — same name
- Josefina in Portuguese — same name
- Giuseppina in Italian — related form
- Josefina in Swedish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Illinois.
Josefinas among us
people named Josefina are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 15,454 born in 2025 was named Josefina
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Josefina
- #1880
- Josefina on the 2025 chart
- #740
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Josefina went to 104 girls in 2025, but Josephina is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 221, which makes it the 740th most-given girls’ name of the year — 1,140 places above the chart.
- Josephina117
- Josefina104
About 1 girl in 7,273 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 15,454 for Josefina 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 Madie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Josefina's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Madie climbed just as high around 1902, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Madie's path sketches the road Josefina is walking now.
Josefina is on its second act. Revived names age gently: the generation that wore them first is far enough away that the name feels classic rather than dated.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Josefina is headed
Josefina 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.
Josefina beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Josefina in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is a complete statement and is undisputed.
- Fina and Pepa are two warm and widely used Spanish short forms.
- It is standard across Spanish, Portuguese and Swedish naming.
- The initial consonant differs between Spanish and English readings.
- Four syllables make it long for everyday use.
- Josephine is the form English speakers will assume.
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What they receive
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Josefina
Feminine · #1880 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Josefinas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 9,600 people named Josefina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Josefina?
- Josefina is one of 2 recorded spellings. Josephina is the more common one — 117 births in 2025 against 104 for Josefina.
- How popular is the name Josefina in 2025?
- Josefina ranks #1880 among US girl names in 2025, with 104 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Josefina?
- About 1 in every 15,454 US girls born in 2025 was named Josefina — 104 in all.
- Will my child share the name Josefina with classmates?
- Josefina will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Josefina
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kiari#1880 · Azuri#1880 · Samaria#1880 · Divine#1880 · Akari#1880 · Aashvi#1880 · Analiyah#1880 · Dhriti#1880
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Josefina? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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