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Josif

Boys' name

English equivalent of Joseph

Josif has been given to 10 babies in the U.S. since 1998. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1998, with 5 recorded.

Babies named Josif, 2003

1 in 760,000

Josif over time, 1880–2025

Boys
024618801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Josif: meaning, origin, and history

English equivalent of Joseph

Hebrew

What Josif means

Josif is a English equivalent of Joseph.

Origin, language, and formation

Josif is used in Serbo-Croatian. Its origins include Hebrew.

Josif comes through Ancient Greek Ἰωσήφ and Biblical Hebrew יוֹסֵף.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Joseph, Josip and Jusuf.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Serbo-Croatian, Josif is pronounced /jǒsif/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 10 boys were recorded with the name Josif between 1998 and 2003. Its highest annual count was 5 in 1998; its best national rank was #10,423 in 1998.

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 Josif?

Josif had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2003, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2003
1 in 760,000
5 of 3,801,425 births
Among boys only
1 in 395,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2003
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
526,991 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Josif 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 2003 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 526,991 children born in 2003 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Josif. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Josifs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Josif was born before 1998 — so the typical Josif is around 27 today.

Median birth year
1998
About 27 years old
Biggest decade
1990s
50.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
100.0%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
10
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1990s — 50.0% of all recorded uses (5).

Is Josif 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
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1998 (5)
Years since peak
27
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Not enough data
Too few years
Best rank ever
#10,423
1998

Spellings of Josif

Josif is not the most common spelling — Jose is, with 69.2% against Josif's <0.01%.

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.

Josif around the world

Where Josif 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
    2019–2019
    #4,702
    in 2019
  • South Australia
    1963–1996
    #540
    in 1996

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Josif by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#10,423
1998
Peak year
1998
5 that year
First recorded
1998
Last recorded
2003
All-time count
10
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Josif

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

JosaniJosseJosetJoseaJosaelJosjeJoslinJosbelJosanJoscarJoshyaJosejrJosaiJosaJosahnJosohnJosesJosehpJosuJoshirJossieJosihaJosenJosman

Sibling names for Josif

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 Josif

Top names of 1998, Josif's peak yearThe 1990s in fullOther names that peaked in 1998Boys' names starting with JJoseph Variations & Nicknames