Joseph
The story
Joseph is Hebrew, Yosef, he will add: the name of the dreamer in Genesis whose coat of many colors and rise in Egypt make one of the Bible's great stories, and of the carpenter of Nazareth in the Gospels. With a patriarch and a saint behind it, the name spread through Christian and Jewish communities across the world as Giuseppe, José, Yusuf, Josef. Its American record is remarkable for what it does not do. While other classics soared and crashed, Joseph simply held, decade after decade, one of the flattest and steadiest lines in the national data from the 1890s to today, easing only slightly in recent years. Names like this are rare: never quite the height of fashion, never remotely out of it. Joe, Joey, and the full Joseph all still work, which may be part of the secret.
Joseph around the world
One shared root links 8 names across 4 languages.
Shared root: from Hebrew Yosef "he will add", the dreamer with the coat
The constellation
More branches
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Joseph peaked in the 1890s and the 1900s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
5,461 people · the #2,583 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 37,037 · median age 19
Among people named Joseph living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 2010s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 911 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Joseph
People given the name Joseph in the United States span the generations: the middle half were born anywhere from 1950 to 1999. Age is the one thing the name won't tell you.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Joseph deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Joseph truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Joseph fits with your family’s names and surname.
Where Joseph travels
Italian American · God will increase; the Americanized form used by generations of Italian immigrant families alongside Giuseppe
Korean American · he will add (a steady church classic across Korean American generations)
Keep exploring
Names like Joseph · Nicknames for Joseph · Italian American baby names · Korean American baby names · Saint names for babies and confirmation
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