Name Awesome

Yosef

#665 in 2025Boys' name

Form of Joseph

Yosef has been given to 10,612 babies in the U.S. since 1951. In 2025 it ranked #665 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2024, with 470 recorded.

Babies named Yosef, 2025

1 in 8,030

Yosef over time, 1880–2025

Boys
020040060018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Yosef: meaning, origin, and history

Form of Joseph

Hebrew

What Yosef means

Yosef is a form of Joseph.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Yosef → Joseph. The family’s meaning is “(God) shall add”, recorded in English with the source elements Yoséf.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

Borrowed from Hebrew יוֹסֵף (yoséf), equivalent to Joseph.

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Yosef (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Yosef is used in English and Ladino. Its origins include Hebrew.

Yosef comes through Hebrew יוֹסֵף.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Joseph.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 10,612 boys were recorded with the name Yosef between 1951 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 470 in 2024; its best national rank was #606 in 2024.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #679 in 2020 to #665 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #709 in 2015 to #665 in 2025.

How common is Yosef?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 8,030
413 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 4,140
0.02% of boys
Rank, 2025
#665
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
5,565 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Yosef 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 1001%
School of 5006%

Put another way: gather 5,565 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Yosef. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Yosefs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Yosef was born before 2012 — so the typical Yosef is around 13 today.

Median birth year
2012
About 13 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
33.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
76.3%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
10,612
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 33.0% of all recorded uses (3,502).

Is Yosef 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
−59
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
+14
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+44
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.17×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
87.9%
Peak was 2024 (470)
Years since peak
1
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Steady
7.5% average annual change
Best rank ever
#606
2024

Spellings of Yosef

Yosef is not the most common spelling — Jose is, with 83.7% against Yosef's 1.5%.

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 Yosef is used

Across 2016–2025, Yosef was most concentrated in New Jersey — about 1 in 358 boys, against 1 in 2,841 across all states with data. It was least common in North Carolina (1 in 100,000).

1279 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1New Jersey1 in 358
  2. 2New York1 in 510
  3. 3Maryland1 in 2,439
  4. 4Florida1 in 5,882
  5. 5Illinois1 in 6,250
  6. 6Pennsylvania1 in 9,091
  7. 7California1 in 11,111
  8. 8Ohio1 in 14,286

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.

Yosef around the world

Where Yosef 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
    #1,035
    in 2025
  • France
    2010–2021
    #5,435
    in 2021
  • Norway
    1880–2025
    #417
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #1,071
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    2005–2011
    #784
    in 2011

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

Notable people named Yosef

People whose public names include Yosef, 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.

Yosef in other languages

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

JoseIosifJosefJosepJosifJosipJozefJusufHovsepJosephYoussefGiuseppeZéJoepJoséJožeOsipOsypSeffHusiyIosebJazepJožefJožko

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

Yosef by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#665
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 14
Best rank ever
#606
2024
Peak year
2024
470 that year
First recorded
1951
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
10,612
Count in 2025
413

Names similar to Yosef

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

YossefJosefYousefYusefYossiYosephYoshuaYoussefYoshiYosiahYostinYoshioYosmarYosielYosohnYosufYussefYoskarYosgartYosgarYoshitoYosifJozsefYossy

Names with a curve like Yosef

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

SamirAlessandroYehudaAndersAbdullahKylanVincenzoHamzaMustafaOmariChaimSamson

Sibling names for Yosef

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 Yosef

Top names of 2024, Yosef's peak yearThe 2020s in fullOther names that peaked in 2024Boys' names starting with YHebrew Boy Names