Jozef
Masculine · “He will add”
Jozef is Joseph in Polish and Slovak, and the j is a y — which is the single thing English readers most often get wrong about it. It arrived in America with the great central European migration and peaked at the end of the First World War.
How old is the name Jozef?
Jozef first appears in US birth records in 1914 — 111 years ago. The typical Jozef alive today was born around 2003, making them about 22 years old. About 1,100 people named Jozef are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jozef most popular?
Jozef peaked in 1918, reaching #2073 nationally. Today it ranks #5399, 3,326 places below that high. See the whole 1918 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yôsēp̄ to Jozef
The story of Jozef
Joseph son of Jacob and Joseph the husband of Mary between them made the name universal in Christendom, and Poland used Józef heavily — Józef Piłsudski, who led the Second Polish Republic, is its most consequential modern bearer. Slovak and Czech families used Jozef and Josef in the same proportions. The Polish, Slovak and Czech migrations to America between 1880 and 1924 brought all these spellings, thickest in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois and Michigan, and the American peak in 1918 sits at the end of that wave. The name faded in American records as the second generation chose Joseph and Joe.
Meaning
He will add; may God add
From Hebrew Yôsēp̄, from yāsap̄, to add — Genesis gives two explanations in the same passage, one from a verb meaning to take away and one from adding, and the adding reading is the standard one. Polish and Slovak Józef and Jozef are direct forms of the same name; the accent over the o in Polish marks a vowel English records routinely drop.
How the name formed
- Yôsēp̄
- Iosephus
- Józef
- Jozef
Related forms: Józef · Jozef · Josef · Josef · Jozef · יוֹסֵף
Pronouncing Jozef
YO-zef
Two syllables, stress on the first. The j is a y in Polish, Slovak, Czech, German and Dutch alike. English readers meeting it cold say JO-zef, which is the main hazard of the spelling.
Nicknames for Jozef
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
- 1914
- Most boys named
- 200557 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2073reached in 1918
- Change vs 2024
- −5.6%17 in 2025, from 18
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.
Jozef in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Józef in Polish — same name
- Jozef in Slovak — same name
- Josef in Czech — spelling variant
- Josef in German — spelling variant
- Jozef in Dutch — same name
- יוֹסֵף in Hebrew — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Illinois, Michigan, California.
Jozefs among us
people named Jozef are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 100,475 born in 2025 was named Jozef
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Jozef
- #5399
- Jozef on the 2025 chart
- #32
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Jozef went to 17 boys in 2025, but Joseph and Josef are 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 — 5,367 places above the chart.
About 1 boy in 232 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 100,475 for Jozef 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
Fashion outlook
Jozef 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
Jozef beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jozef in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled and the biblical bearers are among the best known in the world.
- Joe is available instantly as an English form.
- It is recognizable across most of central Europe.
- English readers will not guess that the j is a y.
- Joseph, Josef and Jozef are three spellings that will be written for each other.
- It is strongly dated to the immigrant generations before 1930.
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Jozef
Masculine · #5399 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jozefs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Jozef are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Jozef?
- Jozef is one of 3 recorded spellings. Joseph is the more common one — 7,303 births in 2025 against 17 for Jozef.
- How popular is the name Jozef in 2025?
- Jozef ranks #5399 among US boy names in 2025, with 17 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jozef?
- About 1 in every 100,475 US boys born in 2025 was named Jozef — 17 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jozef with classmates?
- Jozef will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jozef
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Frazier#5399 · Franz#5399 · Demetrio#5399 · Rolan#5399 · Rayvon#5399 · Riddick#5399 · Laramie#5399 · Soloman#5399
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jozef? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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