Yosef

given name · Latin script

Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

/ˈjoʊsəf/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated

Yosef 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. Recorded meaning: Borrowed from Hebrew יוֹסֵף (yoséf), equivalent to Joseph.

rarermore common
  • ILIsrael≈1 in 433(inferred from the name graph)
  • CZCzechia1 in 25as Josef
  • ESSpain1 in 103as Jose

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 Yosef 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)

5,164,752 named Jose, 2022

#46 (measured from records)

of 15M given names

8 (measured from records)

recorded for this name

Sources
688 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 433 (inferred from the name graph)

Israel, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

JosephLatin(measured from records)
โจเซฟThai(measured from records)
იოსებიGeorgian(measured from records)
ЙосефCyrillic(measured from records)
קוזהHebrew(measured from records)
조셉Hangul(measured from records)
ΚοσεGreek(measured from records)
ՅոզեֆArmenian(measured from records)

3 other spellings are counted as the same name:

Locally spelled Joseph in US United States, NG Nigeria, Josep in BR Brazil, ES Spain, Jose in EC Ecuador, LA Laos and Josef in CZ Czechia.

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)

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

Sources 3

Attested across 21 languages in the etymology graph.

Often considered alongside

Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Yosef, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.

From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Yosef 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.

Where Yosef is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
BR Brazil—5,164,752as Jose1 in 415.8MJosep44
US United States#121,600,667as Joseph1 in 2081.6MJoseph688
NG Nigeria#15≈1,000,000 est.≈1 in 207—Joseph177
EC Ecuador—590,465as Jose1 in 29590KJose68
ES Spain#92487,678as Jose1 in 103532KJosep226
CZ Czechia#9422,634as Josef1 in 25423KJosef184
HN Honduras—170,919as José1 in 54171KJoeseph15
CR Costa Rica—127,526as Jose1 in 40128K—21
LA Laos#2≈30,000 est.≈1 in 248—Jose25
IL Israel—≈20,000 est.≈1 in 43317KYosef118

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; CBS Israel — Family names in Israel, 2017 ("שמות משפחה בישראל 2017"). 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 names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Yosef is also recorded as 7 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Hebrew given name25 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Israel, Morocco, Romania, United States

    Also written יוסף, Joseph, יוסוף, ג'וזף, יוסיף

  • Amharic given name10 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Ethiopia, United States, Nigeria, Sweden

    Also written ዮሴፍ, Joseph, ዮሰፍ, Yosafe, Yoséf

  • a separate name5 spellings in the group

    Also written Yoséf, Yôsef, Yōsef, Yôsēf

  • Hindi given name3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in India, United States, Syria, Israel

    Languages: Hindi, Urdu

    Also written Ýosef

  • Swedish given name7 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, United States

    Languages: Swedish, Danish, Norwegian

    Also written Yôsēf, Ŷosêf

  • French given name9 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, United States, Israel, Syria

    Also written Yoséf, Yóséf, Yôsef, Ŷosef, Ÿöšëf

  • Italian given name2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Italy, United States, Israel

    Also written Ÿôséf

41 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses(measured from records)

Yosef is also recorded in 2 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • In lad, a male given name from Hebrew, equivalent to English Joseph

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • Jewish: modern Hebrew form of JOSEPH .

    as a word

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)

0500100015002000Caiaphas, b. 100Yosef Karo, b. 1488Yosef Chaim, b. 1833Joseph Hertz, b. 1872Joseph Trumpeldor, b. 1880Yosef Haim Brenner, b. 1881Samuel Joseph Agnon, b. 1887Joseph Ber Soloveitchik, b. 1903Chaim Kanievsky, b. 1928Omer Atzili, b. 1993
  • Caiaphasb. 100not in their usual nameJewish High Priest (circa 14 BCE - 46 CE)
  • Yosef Karob. 1488ESSpanish rabbi and author on Jewish law (1488–1575)
  • Yosef Chaimb. 1833IQIraqi rabbi
  • Joseph Hertzb. 1872GBBritish rabbi and biblical scholar, Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom (1872-1946)
  • Joseph Trumpeldorb. 1880RURussian World War I veteran (1880–1920)
  • Yosef Haim Brennerb. 1881ILRussian-born Hebrew-language author (1881-1921)
  • Samuel Joseph Agnonb. 1887ILUkrainian-born Israeli Hebrew writer, Nobel laureate in Literature (1888–1970)
  • Joseph Ber Soloveitchikb. 1903DEAmerican rabbi and theologian (1903–1993)
  • Chaim Kanievskyb. 1928ILnot in their usual nameHaredi rabbi in Israel
  • Omer Atzilib. 1993ILnot in their usual nameIsraeli footballer

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)

Informalשלום Yosef,Hi Yosef, (English)

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 72 sources across 35 countries.

Official registers attesting Yosef
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex20208K#2,876
US United StatesSSA — National Baby Names (1880–present)2025413—
BR BrazilIBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror)2022255—
BR BrazilIBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname)—254#21,390
ES SpainINE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos)—189#9,432
ES SpainINE — Nombres más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal)—174#4,667
BR BrazilIBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname)202096—
BR BrazilIBGE — Nomes (census name API)—41#51,549
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex202019#2,876
CR Costa RicaTSE — electoral roll (padrón) names—13#7,491
EC EcuadorINEC — Visualizador de Nombres y Apellidos, per-token query API (1900–2024)202410—
CZ Czechianaše jména — 2016 MVČR snapshot—3#2,387

Reference works 6

  • Dictionary of American Family Names
  • 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)
  • 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

What are other forms of the name Yosef?
In the etymology graph, Jose, Joseph and Yusuf are forms of the same name in other languages.
What does the name Yosef mean, and where does it come from?
Borrowed from Hebrew יוֹסֵף (yoséf), equivalent to Joseph. Recorded by Wiktionary and Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon and 1 other source.
Is Yosef a male or female name?
Yosef 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 Yosef?
A machine transcription gives /ˈjoʊsəf/ (IPA) for Hebrew.
In which country does Yosef 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.
How common is the name Yosef?
In Brazil, the national register counted 5,164,752 people named Jose in 2022, about 1 in 41 residents.
How common is Yosef compared with other names?
In Laos, Yosef is the 2nd most common given name of 27,499 given names recorded there.

What do you want to know about Yosef?

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/yosef

The 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, “Yosef” — the 2nd most common given name in Laos. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Yosef parses inside a full name →