Yusef
Masculine · “he will add”
Yusef 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 Yusef?
Yusef first appears in US birth records in 1962 — 63 years ago. The typical Yusef alive today was born around 2003, making them about 22 years old. About 3,000 people named Yusef are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Yusef most popular?
Yusef peaked in 1972, reaching #1083 nationally. Today it ranks #1886, 803 places below that high. See the whole 1972 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yosef to Yusef
The story of Yusef
The Joseph story fills a quarter of Genesis and is retold complete in the Quran's twelfth sura, which opens by calling it the most beautiful of stories. Yusuf is among the most-used names in the Muslim world, and Yusef is a common American transliteration. It appears in the registers in current 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
- Yusef
Related forms: يوسف · Yusuf · Yusuf · Joseph
Pronouncing Yusef
YOO-sef
Two syllables, stress on the first. Arabic gives both vowels a fuller value than English does.
Nicknames for Yusef
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
- 1962
- Most boys named
- 2024104 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1083reached in 1972
- Change vs 2024
- −20.2%83 in 2025, from 104
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.
Yusef in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- يوسف in Arabic — transliteration
- Yusuf in English — spelling variant
- Yusuf in Turkish — same name
- Joseph in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Texas.
Yusefs among us
people named Yusef are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 20,579 born in 2025 was named Yusef
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 Phillips test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Yusef's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Phillips climbed just as high around 1909, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Phillips's path sketches the road Yusef is walking now.
Yusef is on its second act. Revived names age gently: the generation that wore them first is far enough away that the name feels classic rather than dated.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Yusef is headed
Yusef looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 29% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Yusef beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Yusef 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 and Persian naming.
- Yusuf is the commoner transliteration and several others exist.
- Joseph is the form English speakers will assume as an equivalent.
- It will be respelled by other people regularly.
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What they receive
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Yusef
Masculine · #1886 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Yusefs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,000 people named Yusef are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Yusef in 2025?
- Yusef ranks #1886 among US boy names in 2025, with 83 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Yusef?
- About 1 in every 20,579 US boys born in 2025 was named Yusef — 83 in all.
- Will my child share the name Yusef with classmates?
- Yusef will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Yusef
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Adolfo#1886 · Wolf#1886 · Kyron#1886 · Xylo#1886 · Mayer#1886 · Hussein#1886 · Camdyn#1886 · Rakan#1886
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Yusef? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Yusef and another name?
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Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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