Josie
Masculine · “Hebrew Yosef”
Josie is given to girls far more often — 75,370 girls against 545 boys since 1880. See Josie as a girl name
Pharaoh renames Joseph in Genesis, and the name he gives, Zaphenath-paneah, looks like genuine Egyptian. It is one of the few places where the Hebrew text preserves a foreign name in something like its own shape.
How old is the name Josie?
Josie first appears in US birth records in 1896 — 129 years ago. The typical Josie alive today was born around 1984, making them about 41 years old. About 400 people named Josie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Josie most popular?
Josie peaked in 1896, reaching #1101 nationally. Today it ranks #10695, 9,594 places below that high. See the whole 1896 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yosef to Josie
The story of Josie
The Joseph narrative is unusually well furnished with Egyptian detail: the titles, the court procedure, the granary administration and the names. When Pharaoh promotes him he gives him a new name, Zaphenath-paneah, and a wife, Asenath, whose name contains the goddess Neith; both look like real Egyptian formations rather than Hebrew inventions, though the exact original of the first is disputed. The Hebrew name Yosef is explained in the text by a pun on a verb meaning to add, which is how the Bible usually handles etymology, and which is not the same as a derivation. Josie, the diminutive, followed the general nineteenth-century drift of -ie endings from male to female and is now read as a girl's name.
Meaning
Hebrew Yosef, may he add
Joseph is Hebrew Yosef, explained in Genesis by Rachel's wish that God add another son, which is a wordplay rather than an etymology. Josie is a diminutive of it, used for men in nineteenth-century America and now almost entirely female. The male peak is 1896.
How the name formed
- Yosef
- Joseph
- Josie
Related forms: Josey · Yosef
Pronouncing Josie
JOH-zee
Two syllables, stress on the first. Josie and Josey are homophones; the s is said as a z.
Nicknames for Josie
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
- 1896
- Most boys named
- 200417 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1101reached in 1896
- Change vs 2023
- −45.5%6 in 2025, from 11
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.
Josie in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Josey in English — spelling variant
- Yosef in Hebrew — related form
Josies among us
people named Josie are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 284,679 born in 2025 was named Josie
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Josie 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
Josie beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Josie in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Joseph is available as the formal version.
- Two syllables and five letters.
- It reads as warm and informal.
- The name is female in modern American use.
- Its male use ended before 1920.
- It reads as a diminutive rather than a full name.
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What they receive
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Josie
Masculine · #10695 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Josies are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Josie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Josie in 2025?
- Josie ranks #10695 among US boy names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Josie?
- About 1 in every 284,679 US boys born in 2025 was named Josie — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Josie with classmates?
- Josie will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Josie
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Dudley#10695 · Dell#10695 · Buford#10695 · Toney#10695 · Allison#10695 · Candido#10695 · Jodie#10695 · Nora#10695
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Josie? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Josie and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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