Josefine
Feminine · “Hebrew "he will add”
Josefine is the Scandinavian and German spelling of Joséphine, and it descends from a Hebrew sentence about the future. Yosef means "he will add" — Rachel names her son that in Genesis while asking for another — so the name is a request rather than a description, which is unusual among biblical names.
How old is the name Josefine?
Josefine first appears in US birth records in 1918 — 107 years ago. The typical Josefine alive today was born around 2004, making them about 21 years old. About 600 people named Josefine are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Josefine most popular?
Josefine peaked in 1930, reaching #2845 nationally. Today it ranks #7133, 4,288 places below that high. See the whole 1930 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yosef to Josefine
The story of Josefine
Joseph was one of the most-used men's names in Christian Europe, but a feminine form was slow to appear: Joséphine is essentially eighteenth-century French, and it became internationally visible after 1796 through Napoleon's first wife. Germany and Scandinavia adopted it in the nineteenth century with the f spelling that their orthographies prefer, giving Josefine and Josefina. In America the f spelling marks German, Danish, Norwegian or Swedish descent, and its 1930 peak sits in the last generation of large-scale Scandinavian immigration.
Meaning
Hebrew "he will add"
From Yosef, a verb form from the root y-s-p, to add or increase. Genesis gives the naming explicitly: Rachel calls her son Joseph saying may the Lord add to me another son. The feminine forms — Josephine, Josefine, Giuseppina, Josefa — are all later European derivations from the masculine and carry the same meaning.
How the name formed
- Yosef
- Ioseph
- Joseph
- Joséphine
- Josefine
Related forms: Joséphine · Josefine · Giuseppina · Josefina · Josefine
Pronouncing Josefine
yo-seh-FEE-nuh
Four syllables in German and Danish, with the stress on the third and the final e pronounced. The J is a Y in those languages. English speakers say jo-suh-FEEN in three syllables with a silent final e, which is the French pattern.
Nicknames for Josefine
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
- 1918
- Most girls named
- 202126 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2845reached in 1930
- Change vs 2024
- −31.8%15 in 2025, from 22
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.
Josefine in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Joséphine in French — same name
- Josefine in German — same name
- Giuseppina in Italian — same name
- Josefina in Spanish — same name
- Josefine in Danish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York.
Josefines among us
people named Josefine are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 107,151 born in 2025 was named Josefine
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Josefine
- #7133
- Josefine on the 2025 chart
- #62
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Josefine went to 15 girls in 2025, but Josephine is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 4,141, which makes it the 62nd most-given girls’ name of the year — 7,071 places above the chart.
- Josephine4,126
- Josefine15
About 1 girl in 388 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 107,151 for Josefine 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 Ellanor test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Josefine's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ellanor climbed just as high around 1913, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ellanor's path sketches the road Josefine is walking now.
Josefine 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
Josefine beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Josefine in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The etymology is settled and unusually specific — a sentence rather than a description.
- It offers short forms in three different traditions: Josie, Fine and Fifi.
- The f spelling is genuine in five languages rather than an American simplification.
- Josephine is the standard English spelling and will be written instead.
- The final e is pronounced in German and silent in English, giving two different names.
- It is four syllables at full length, which is long for daily use.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Josefine to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Josefine? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Josefine
Feminine · #7133 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Josefines are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Josefine are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Josefine?
- Josefine is one of 2 recorded spellings. Josephine is the more common one — 4,126 births in 2025 against 15 for Josefine.
- How popular is the name Josefine in 2025?
- Josefine ranks #7133 among US girl names in 2025, with 15 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Josefine?
- About 1 in every 107,151 US girls born in 2025 was named Josefine — 15 in all.
- Will my child share the name Josefine with classmates?
- Josefine will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Josefine
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Pennie#7133 · Zina#7133 · Elzie#7133 · Rosabel#7133 · Adelene#7133 · Cruz#7133 · Kansas#7133 · Ione#7133
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Josefine? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Josefine and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
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
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle