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Josefa

#8,588 in 2025Girls' name

(God) shall add, through Joseph

Josefa has been given to 4,062 babies in the U.S. since 1881. In 2025 it ranked #8,588 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1925, with 84 recorded.

Babies named Josefa, 2025

1 in 276,000

Josefa over time, 1880–2025

Girls
025507510018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Josefa: meaning, origin, and history

(God) shall add, through Joseph

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Josefa means

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

Origin, language, and formation

Josefa is used in Fijian, Malagasy, Portuguese, Shona and Spanish.

Josefa comes through English Joseph.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Joseph.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Portuguese, Josefa is pronounced /ʒoˈzɛ.fɐ/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 4,062 girls were recorded with the name Josefa between 1881 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 84 in 1925; its best national rank was #554 in 1890.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #14,204 in 2020 to #8,588 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #15,358 in 2015 to #8,588 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 Josefa?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 276,000
12 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 134,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#8,588
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
191,493 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Josefa sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

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 191,493 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Josefa. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Josefas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Josefa was born before 1935 — so the typical Josefa is around 90 today.

Median birth year
1935
About 90 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
17.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
6.2%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
1,474
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 17.9% of all recorded uses (726).

Is Josefa 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
−2,079
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
+5,616
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+6,770
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
2.00×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
14.3%
Peak was 1925 (84)
Years since peak
100
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
44.4% average annual change
Best rank ever
#554
1890

Spellings of Josefa

Josefa is not the most common spelling — Josefina is, with 31.1% against Josefa's 9.1%.

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 Josefa is used

Across 1910–2025, Josefa was most concentrated in Texas — about 1 in 5,556 girls, against 1 in 21,079 across all states with data. It was least common in New York (1 in —).

018 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Texas1 in 5,556
  2. 2New Mexico1 in 16,667
  3. 3Arizona1 in 100,000
  4. 4California1 in 100,000
  5. 5Illinois1 in —
  6. 6New York1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls 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. Josefa has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Josefa around the world

Where Josefa 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.

  • France
    1907–2025
    #6,965
    in 2025
  • South Australia
    1950–1991
    #669
    in 1991

Popularity data from Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Josefa

People whose public names include Josefa, 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.

Josefa in other languages

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

JozefaJosephaGiuseppaJosefinaJositaJózefaPepitaJossepha

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

Josefa by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#8,588
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 5,616
Best rank ever
#554
1890
Peak year
1925
84 that year
First recorded
1881
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
4,062
Count in 2025
12

Names similar to Josefa

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

JossieJoselinJoslynnJosephJoseyJoslynJoslinJosetteJosslynJosalynJoshuaJoselineJosselynJoshlynJosilynJoscelynJosiahJoselynJosephinaJoselynnJosefinaJoselyneJoseJosi

Names with a curve like Josefa

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

HenryFrankElizebethLouisZitaWalterRosinaTomasaLavadaAugustineLuveniaAlbert

Sibling names for Josefa

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 Josefa

Top names of 1925, Josefa's peak yearThe 1920s in fullOther names that peaked in 1890Girls' names starting with JJoseph Variations & Nicknames