Yosef
Meaning
“Hebrew form of Joseph, 'he will add'”
The story
Yosef is the Hebrew form of Joseph, and the chain behind it is one of naming's oldest: Latin Ioseph, from Greek Ioseph, from the Hebrew Yosef, "he will add", from the root yasaf, "to add, to increase". In the Old Testament, Joseph is the eleventh son of Jacob, the first with his wife Rachel, and his father's favourite. The Hebrew spelling has its own American line, and it has climbed every decade since the 1950s: about 72 boys that decade, about 350 in the 1970s, about 1,150 in the 1990s, about 2,200 in the 2000s, about 3,500 in the 2010s, and about 2,550 so far this decade. A meaning about increase, a favourite son in the story, and a record that has done nothing but add.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Yosef peaked in the 2010s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
255 people · the #21,390 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 1,000,000 · median age 5
Among people named Yosef living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 2010s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 96 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Yosef
Most people given the name Yosef in the United States are children or teenagers today. The name belongs to this generation.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Yosef deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Yosef 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 Yosef fits with your family’s names and surname.
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