Yousuf
Masculine · “he will add”
Yousuf is Joseph in Arabic — may God add — and the Quran calls the sura telling his story the most beautiful of stories.
How old is the name Yousuf?
Yousuf first appears in US birth records in 1983 — 42 years ago. The typical Yousuf is a kid of about 10 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,700 people named Yousuf are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Yousuf most popular?
Yousuf peaked in 2020, reaching #1694 nationally. Today it ranks #1808, 114 places below that high. See the whole 2020 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yosef to Yousuf
The story of Yousuf
The Joseph story fills a quarter of Genesis and is retold complete and in order in the Quran's twelfth sura, which opens by calling it ahsan al-qasas — the most beautiful of stories. Yusuf is among the most-used names in the Muslim world. Yousuf is the South Asian spelling and is in current American use.
Meaning
he will add, may God increase
From the Hebrew Yosef, from yasaf, 'to add' — Rachel names him saying may the Lord add another son. Arabic took it as Yusuf. The Hebrew gloss is in Genesis itself, which makes the etymology unusually secure.
How the name formed
- Yosef
- Yusuf
- Yousuf
Related forms: يوسف · Yusuf · Yousuf · Joseph
Pronouncing Yousuf
YOO-suf
Two syllables, stress on the first. Arabic gives both vowels a fuller value than English does.
Nicknames for Yousuf
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
- 1983
- Most boys named
- 2022101 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1694reached in 2020
- Change vs 2024
- −3.3%88 in 2025, from 91
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.
Yousuf in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- يوسف in Arabic — transliteration
- Yusuf in English — spelling variant
- Yousuf in Urdu — same name
- Joseph in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, Texas, California.
Yousufs among us
people named Yousuf are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 19,410 born in 2025 was named Yousuf
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 Jerard test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Yousuf's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jerard climbed just as high around 1986, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jerard's path sketches the road Yousuf is walking now.
Yousuf 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 Yousuf is headed
Yousuf 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.
Yousuf beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Yousuf 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 a complete statement and is undisputed.
- The same figure carries a major narrative in both the Bible and the Quran.
- It is used across Arabic, Turkish, Urdu and Persian naming.
- Yusuf is the commoner transliteration and several others exist.
- The ou spelling follows South Asian convention and will need explaining.
- Joseph is the form English speakers will assume as an equivalent.
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Yousuf
Masculine · #1808 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Yousufs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,700 people named Yousuf are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Yousuf in 2025?
- Yousuf ranks #1808 among US boy names in 2025, with 88 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Yousuf?
- About 1 in every 19,410 US boys born in 2025 was named Yousuf — 88 in all.
- Will my child share the name Yousuf with classmates?
- Yousuf will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Yousuf
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Gentry#1808 · Avrohom#1808 · Alakai#1808 · Callaway#1808 · Arsiah#1808 · Honor#1808 · Tyree#1808 · Tamir#1808
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Yousuf? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Yousuf and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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