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Josef

#2,859 in 2025Boys' name

(God) shall add, through Joseph

Josef has been given to 9,158 babies in the U.S. since 1900. In 2025 it ranked #2,859 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1999, with 220 recorded.

Babies named Josef, 2025

1 in 75,300

Josef over time, 1880–2025

Boys
010020030018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Josef: meaning, origin, and history

(God) shall add, through Joseph

Hebrew and Spanish

What Josef means

Josef belongs to the name family reached through Josef → Joseph. Its meaning is “(God) shall add”.

Origin, language, and formation

Josef is used in English, Albanian, Czech, Danish, German, Norwegian, Swedish and Tagalog and additional language sections. Its origins include Hebrew and Spanish.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Joseph and Jozef.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Albanian, Josef is pronounced /joːsɛf/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 9,158 boys were recorded with the name Josef between 1900 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 220 in 1999; its best national rank was #663 in 1984.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #2,123 in 2020 to #2,859 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #1,710 in 2015 to #2,859 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Josef?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 75,300
44 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 38,800
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#2,859
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
52,226 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Josef sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 52,226 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Josef. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Josefs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Josef was born before 1992 — so the typical Josef is around 33 today.

Median birth year
1992
About 33 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
20.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
32.9%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
8,473
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 20.0% of all recorded uses (1,834).

Is Josef rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−584
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−736
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−1,149
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.48×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
20.0%
Peak was 1999 (220)
Years since peak
26
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Steady
11.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#663
1984

Spellings of Josef

Josef is not the most common spelling — Joseph is, with 62.7% against Josef's 0.22%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Josef is used

Across 2016–2025, Josef was most concentrated in New York — about 1 in 7,692 boys, against 1 in 27,835 across all states with data. It was least common in Ohio (1 in 100,000).

113 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1New York1 in 7,692
  2. 2Nevada1 in 25,000
  3. 3California1 in 33,333
  4. 4Louisiana1 in 33,333
  5. 5Texas1 in 33,333
  6. 6Florida1 in 50,000
  7. 7Indiana1 in 50,000
  8. 8Maryland1 in 50,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings.

Josef around the world

Where Josef ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2025
    #1,798
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    1991–2008
    #474
    in 2008
  • Northern Ireland
    2002–2002
    #281
    in 2002
  • Ireland
    2013–2013
    #422
    in 2013
  • France
    1903–2024
    #2,979
    in 2024
  • Norway
    1880–2025
    #232
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #2,328
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1950–2013
    #499
    in 2013

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Norway, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS, NISRA data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, SSB, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Josef

People whose public names include Josef, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Josef in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Josef. Linked forms have their own page here.

JoseIosifJosepJosifJosipJozefJusufYosefJosephGiuseppeZéJoepJoséJožaJožeOsipOsypSeffHusiyJazepJožefJožkoJózefOssip

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Josef by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#2,859
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 736
Best rank ever
#663
1984
Peak year
1999
220 that year
First recorded
1900
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
9,158
Count in 2025
44

Names similar to Josef

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

JoshYosefJosiasJosueJoseyYousefYusefJospehJoshuahJosieJoshueJoseluisJostinJosmarJossueJosielJosiahYoussefJosyahJosuaJossJosianJosiyahJosean

Names with a curve like Josef

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Josef, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

EfrenRigobertoHeribertoRaymundoBriceNestorBrittonJamilKendellBrandtLazaroAntony

Sibling names for Josef

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Josef

Top names of 1999, Josef's peak yearThe 1990s in fullOther names that peaked in 1984Boys' names starting with JJoseph Variations & NicknamesUncommon Czech Boy Names