Yousef
Masculine · “He will add”
Yousef is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 7,003 boys against 5 girls since 1880.
Yousef is the Arabic Yūsuf written for English eyes — the same name as Joseph, carried by one of the most told stories in both the Bible and the Quran. It is a name that has crossed Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, Turkish, Persian and Urdu without ever really changing shape, and it lands in the mouth in two clean beats. In the US it is a newer arrival than Joseph, but it belongs to the same very old line.
How old is the name Yousef?
Yousef first appears in US birth records in 1970 — 55 years ago. The typical Yousef is a kid of about 11 — this name's wave is very recent. About 6,900 people named Yousef are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Yousef most popular?
Yousef peaked in 2017, reaching #725 nationally. Today it ranks #744, 19 places below that high. See the whole 2017 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yosef to Yousef
The story of Yousef
The name begins as Hebrew Yosef, borne in Genesis by the son of Jacob sold into Egypt and risen to govern it. That story traveled: the Greek translators of the Hebrew Bible wrote it Iōsēph, Latin made it Ioseph and then Joseph, while Arabic kept closer to the original consonants as Yūsuf — the name of a prophet and the subject of the twelfth sura of the Quran, which calls itself the most beautiful of stories. From Arabic the name spread with Islam across Turkey, Iran, South Asia, the Horn of Africa and West Africa, picking up spellings in each script. Yousef is one of several ways Arabic-speaking families have romanised it on arrival in English-speaking countries, and in the US it clusters where those communities are largest.
Meaning
He will add; God shall increase
The root is the Hebrew verb yasaf, 'to add'. The book of Genesis attaches the name to Rachel's hope for another son, and the reading has stayed stable across every language the name has traveled into.
How the name formed
- Yosef
- Iōsēph
- Yūsuf
- Yousef
Related forms: يوسف (Yūsuf) · Yusuf · Yosef · Joseph · José · Yousef
Pronouncing Yousef
YOO-sef
Stress usually falls on the first syllable in American English, though yoo-SEF is also heard. In Arabic the vowel of the second syllable is longer and rounder — closer to YOO-soof.
Nicknames for Yousef
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
- 1970
- Most boys named
- 2025349 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #725reached in 2017
- Change vs 2024
- +5.4%349 in 2025, from 331
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.
Yousef in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- يوسف (Yūsuf) in Arabic — same name
- Yusuf in Turkish — same name
- Yosef in Hebrew — same name
- Joseph in English — related form
- José in Spanish — related form
- Yousef in Persian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Illinois.
Yousefs among us
people named Yousef are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 4,894 born in 2025 was named Yousef
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Mariano test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Yousef's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Mariano climbed just as high around 1912, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Mariano's path sketches the road Yousef is walking now.
Yousef 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 Yousef is headed
Yousef 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.
Yousef beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Yousef 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 oldest continuously used names on record, held in Hebrew, Arabic, Greek and Latin traditions alike.
- Recognizable across Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Hebrew and English-speaking settings without needing translation.
- Two syllables, no silent letters, and every sound in it exists in English.
- Joseph, José and Yusuf are all the same name, so cousins and grandparents can share it in different scripts.
- A ready English bridge in Joe, if a bearer ever wants one.
- The spelling competes with Youssef, Yusuf, Yousuf and Yusef, all in real use. Yours will need repeating and correcting fairly often, and forms will sometimes come back with an extra s.
- Stress varies between speakers — YOO-sef and yoo-SEF are both out there — so a bearer may hear their own name two ways in the same week.
- In the US this name's bearers skew young, so it reads as a contemporary choice here even though it is ancient elsewhere. A Yousef is unlikely to share a classroom with another.
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What they receive
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Yousef
Masculine · #744 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Yousefs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 6,900 people named Yousef are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Yousef in 2025?
- Yousef ranks #744 among US boy names in 2025, with 349 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Yousef?
- About 1 in every 4,894 US boys born in 2025 was named Yousef — 349 in all.
- Will my child share the name Yousef with classmates?
- Yousef will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Yousef
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Brixton#744 · Abram#742 · Clyde#742 · Franco#746 · Enoch#746 · Bode#748 · Yehuda#740 · Bruno#740
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Yousef? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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