Joseph

What Joseph means

Means “(God) shall add”

From Middle English Ioseph, ultimately from Biblical Hebrew יוֹסֵף (Yoséf, literally “(God) shall add”); a son of Jacob.

Source: Wiktionary, “Joseph” (revision 94596337), CC BY-SA 4.0. Quoted from the etymology; we don’t write our own.

How popular is Joseph?

US: Falling: down from #21 in 2015. England & Wales: Falling: down from #21 in 2015.

Biggest US share so far: 1914, when 18,829 boys got the name (#5 that year). First in the US records in 1880.

How common

• About 1 in 234 baby boys in the US in 2025
• About 1 in 335 baby boys in England and Wales in 2025
• About 1 in 277 baby boys in Scotland in 2025

“1 in N” divides by all listed births for that sex. The US list leaves out names given to fewer than 5 babies, and the UK lists leave out names given to 2 or fewer, so the real figure is a little rarer than shown.

Where in the US

Most popular in NJ (9.41 per 1,000 boys), CT (9.39 per 1,000 boys), AK (9.24 per 1,000 boys) in 2025.

SSA state data, 2025. Share of all listed boys born in each state.

US vs UK

Joseph is #29 in the US and #59 in England & Wales (2025).

Same sex as this page (boys). SSA (US), ONS (England and Wales), NRS (Scotland).

Boy or girl?

In 2025, 99.8% of US babies named Joseph were boys.

Counts below the publishing threshold (US 5, UK 3) are not included.

How to say it

IPA from Wiktionary.

Other spellings parents chose in 2025

• Josef44 US · 14 E&W
• Joseff0 US · 3 E&W

Names that sound the same and differ by a letter or two, with baby counts for the same sex. US and E&W counts.

Nicknames

• Joe
• Joey
• Jo

Listed on Wiktionary under “pet forms”.

If you like Joseph

Boys

• Matthew#32“gift of the Lord”^*
• Joe#991Editor’s note Peaked in the US in 1936, with 8,023 babies; 230 in 2025
• Daniel#22“God is my judge”^*
• Zachary#216“Yahweh has remembered”^*
• Joshua#66“to save”^*
• David#35“beloved”^*

For a sister

• Jessica#665possibly “Iscah in Genesis 11:29, Jescha in the Wycliffe…^*
• Sarah#90“masters, princes”^*
• Samantha#151“listener”^*
• Elizabeth#17“my God is an oath”^*
• Rebekah#884“enchantingly beautiful, captivating, snare”^*
• Michelle#465Feminine form of Michel, meaning “who is like God?”^*

Picked from the US top 1,000 in 2025: names Wiktionary also files under Bible, Hebrew, whose US popularity since 1990 rose and fell most like Joseph’s. Rank is US 2025.