Josef
given name · Latin script
Meaning, in German: Joseph
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/joːzeːf/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Josef is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Brazil than in any other country. In Laos it is the 2nd most common given name.
- CZCzechia1 in 25(measured from records)
- ESSpain1 in 103as Jose
- NGNigeria≈1 in 207as Joseph
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Josef itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Brazil (measured from records)
- #46 (measured from records)
- 8 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 688 (measured from records)
- 1 in 25 (inferred from the name graph)
5,164,752 named Jose, 2022
of 15M given names
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Czechia
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled Joseph in US United States, NG Nigeria, Josep in BR Brazil, ES Spain, Jose in EC Ecuador, LA Laos and Joeseph in HN Honduras.
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
a male given name from Hebrew, equivalent to English Joseph
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 10 languages in the etymology graph.
How Josef is read(measured from records)
Josef is one spelling over 3 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 3 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.
- German70%
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- English10%
Germanic form of Joseph
as a nameBaby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…
- Czech8.2%
a male given name from Hebrew, equivalent to English Joseph
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Josef counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BR Brazil | — | 5,164,752as Jose | 1 in 41 | 5.8M | Josep | 44 |
| US United States | #12 | 1,600,667as Joseph | 1 in 208 | 1.6M | Joseph | 688 |
| NG Nigeria | #15 | ≈1,000,000 est. | ≈1 in 207 | — | Joseph | 177 |
| EC Ecuador | — | 590,465as Jose | 1 in 29 | 590K | Jose | 68 |
| ES Spain | #92 | 487,678as Jose | 1 in 103 | 532K | Josep | 226 |
| CZ Czechia | #9 | 422,634 | 1 in 25 | 423K | Josef | 184 |
| HN Honduras | — | 170,919as José | 1 in 54 | 171K | Joeseph | 15 |
| CR Costa Rica | — | 127,526as Jose | 1 in 40 | 128K | — | 21 |
| LA Laos | #2 | ≈30,000 est. | ≈1 in 248 | — | Jose | 25 |
5,164,752 people counted by IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror), 2022, counting the spelling jose. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror); IBGE — Nomes (census name API); INEC — civil registry names; INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos); INE — Nombres más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal); MVČR — living population register 2017; RNP — cumulative registry names; TSE — electoral roll (padrón) names. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Josef is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
German, Dutch, Scandinavian, and Czech form of JOSEPH . Pet forms: Czech: Józa, Joska, Jo (k)a, Jo ánek .
as a word
In Filipino, a male given name from Spanish, equivalent to English Joseph
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In yol, a male given name, equivalent to English Joseph
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Caiaphasb. 100not in their usual nameJewish High Priest (circa 14 BCE - 46 CE)
- Karl VIb. 1685ATnot in their usual name18th century Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor
- William Turnerb. 1775GBnot in their usual nameEnglish painter and draftsman (c.1775–1851)
- Josef Stefanb. 1835ATCarinthian Slovene physicist, mathematician and poet (1835-1893)
- Konrad Adenauerb. 1876DEnot in their usual nameGerman politician, Chancellor of West Germany (1949–1963), Zentrum and CDU
- Samuel Joseph Agnonb. 1887ILUkrainian-born Israeli Hebrew writer, Nobel laureate in Literature (1888–1970)
- Kurt Waldheimb. 1918ATnot in their usual nameAustrian politician and diplomat (1918–2007)
- Benedict XVIb. 1927DEnot in their usual name265 th pope of the Catholic Church (2005–2013)
- Helmut Kohlb. 1930DEnot in their usual nameChancellor of West Germany and reunified Germany (1982–1998)
- Lukas Podolskib. 1985PLnot in their usual nameGerman association football player (born 1985)
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 91 sources across 42 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CZ Czechia | MVČR — living population register 2017 | — | 423K | #6 |
| CZ Czechia | naše jména — 2016 MVČR snapshot | — | 211K | #6 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 9.6K | #2,516 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror) | 2022 | 1.4K | — |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 1.4K | #6,568 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Nomes (census name API) | — | 1.2K | #8,028 |
| ES Spain | INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos) | — | 296 | #6,688 |
| ES Spain | INE — Nombres más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal) | — | 291 | #3,101 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | 2020 | 156 | — |
| CR Costa Rica | TSE — electoral roll (padrón) names | — | 80 | #2,464 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 51 | #2,516 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 44 | — |
Reference works 6
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
- Ethiopian name tokens (GitHub lehagere/ethiopian-names, 40/60 condominium list)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- Where does the name Josef come from?
- a male given name from Hebrew, equivalent to English Joseph Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- In which country does Josef have the most bearers?
- In Brazil, the national register counted about 5.2 million people named Jose, more than in any other country we hold.
- Where is Josef most common?
- Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Josef is densest in Czechia — about 1 in 25 people — even though Brazil holds more of our records for it.
- What are other forms of the name Josef?
- In the etymology graph, Jose, Joseph and Joe are forms of the same name in other languages.
- Is Josef a male or female name?
- Josef is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- How do you pronounce Josef?
- A machine transcription gives /joːzeːf/ (IPA) for German.
- How common is the name Josef?
- In Czechia, the national register counted 422,634 people named Josef, about 1 in 25 residents.
- How common is Josef compared with other names?
- In Laos, Josef is the 2nd most common given name of 27,499 given names recorded there.
- What does the name Josef mean?
- In German, Joseph
What do you want to know about Josef?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/josefThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Josef” — the 2nd most common given name in Laos. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.