Iosif
given name · Latin script
Meaning, in Romanian: a male given name, equivalent to English Joseph
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/ˈaɪəsɪf/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Iosif is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country. In Greece it is the 23rd most common given name.
- RORomania≈1 in 1.5K(inferred from the name graph)
- GRGreece≈1 in 28K
- USUnited States1 in 208as 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 Iosif 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.
- United States (measured from records)
- 3 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 225 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 1.5K (inferred from the name graph)
1,600,667 named Joseph, 2020
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Romania, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled Joseph in US United States, GR Greece, Йосип in UA Ukraine and Иосиф in RU Russia.
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, equivalent to English Joseph
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 27 languages in the etymology graph.
How Iosif is read(measured from records)
Iosif is one spelling over 4 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 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.
- English33%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Iosif in English.
- Romanian22%
a male given name, equivalent to English Joseph
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- Russian17%
"provides." Russianization of Joseph.
as a wordA Dictionary of Period Russian Names (Wickenden / Goldschmidt 1996)
- French6.0%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Iosif in French.
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)
Iosif 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | — | 1,600,667as Joseph | 1 in 208 | 1.6M | Joseph | 225 |
| UA Ukraine | #127 | ≈23,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.9K | — | Йосип | 43 |
| EC Ecuador | — | 15,935as Joseph | 1 in 1.1K | 16K | — | 7 |
| RO Romania | #206 | ≈14,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.5K | — | Iosif | 85 |
| RU Russia | #343 | ≈7,900 est. | ≈1 in 18K | #127 | Иосиф | 156 |
| CR Costa Rica | — | 4,381as Joseph | 1 in 1.2K | 4.4K | — | 2 |
| MD Moldova | #555 | 931 | 1 in 3.6K | 931 | Iosif | 8 |
| GR Greece | #23 | ≈380 est. | ≈1 in 28K | 33 | Joseph | 83 |
1,600,667 people counted by Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex, 2020. 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; Διαύγεια — directory of signing officials (organization → signers); INEC — civil registry names; TSE — electoral roll (padrón) names; e-services.md — living population register. 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)
Iosif is also recorded in one other lexicon, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
Russian form of JOSEPH (see also OSIP ).
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)
- Ion Ivanovicib. 1845ROnot in their usual nameRomanian military band leader and composer (1845–1902)
- Joseph Stalinb. 1878RUnot in their usual nameleader of the Soviet Union from 1924 to 1953
- Osip Mandelstamb. 1891PLnot in their usual nameRussian poet and essayist (1891-1938)
- Joseph Schillingerb. 1895USnot in their usual nameAmerican musician (1895-1943)
- Jascha Heifetzb. 1901USnot in their usual nameRussian-American violinist (1901–1987)
- Iosif Kheifitsb. 1905RUSoviet and Russian film director (1905–1995)
- Iosif Shklovskyb. 1916RUSoviet astronomer (1916–1985)
- Joseph Kobzonb. 1937RUnot in their usual nameSoviet and Russian singer (1937–2018)
- Joseph Brodskyb. 1940USnot in their usual nameRussian-American poet (1940-1996)
- Cosmin Moțib. 1984ROnot in their usual nameRomanian association football player
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 44 sources across 26 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 1.1K | #11,837 |
| MD Moldova | e-services.md — living population register | — | 931 | #353 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 6 | — |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 5 | #11,837 |
| EC Ecuador | INEC — Visualizador de Nombres y Apellidos, per-token query API (1900–2024) | 2021 | 1 | — |
Reference works 3
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
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 does the name Iosif mean, and where does it come from?
- a male given name, equivalent to English Joseph Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- How do you pronounce Iosif?
- A machine transcription gives /ˈaɪəsɪf/ (IPA) for English.
- What are other forms of the name Iosif?
- In the etymology graph, Jose, Joseph and Joe are forms of the same name in other languages.
- Is Iosif a male or female name?
- Iosif 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.
- In which country does Iosif have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 1.6 million people named Joseph, more than in any other country we hold.
- How common is the name Iosif?
- In Moldova, the national register counted 931 people named Iosif, about 1 in 3.6 thousand residents.
- How common is Iosif compared with other names?
- In Greece, Iosif is the 23rd most common given name of 24,546 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Iosif?
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/iosifThe 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, “Iosif” — the 23rd most common given name in Greece. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.