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Shem Tov · Hebrew names

Boy's nameOrigin: biblicalIn Israel: steady

YosefIn Hebrew: יוסף · meaning, pronunciation and popularity in Israel

With vowel points: יוֹסֵףRomanization: yoséf

Yosef (Hebrew: יוסף) is a boy's name of biblical origin. 107,819 people born in Israel between 1949 and 2024 have it today, according to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). In 2024 it was given to 1,987 boys and ranked #2. Its peak year was 2012, with 2,226 babies.

People in Israel
107,819
born 1949–2024
Babies in 2024
1,987
rank #2
Peak year
2012
2,226 babies
USA, 2025
413
rank #663

Writing and saying Yosef

In Hebrew letters the name is יוסף, read right to left. Yosef is the Latin spelling recorded by our review; families choose their own spelling in passports, so you may also meet other forms. Wiktionary romanizes it as "yoséf" (the accent marks the stressed syllable).

Meaning and origin

  • Joseph (eleventh and favorite son of Jacob, by his wife Rachel)
  • Joseph, husband of Mary, mother of Jesus
  • Yusuf, a prophet of Islam
Third-person singular jussive of הוֹסִיף (hosíf, “to add”), thus meaning “may he add”.

Quoted from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0), unchanged.

Yosef by year: Israel and abroad

How many boys out of every 10,000 born each year have the name. For Israel it counts the people born that year who carry the name today (the CBS counts residents by year of birth, not birth registrations).

Yosef: rate per 10,000, 1950–2025

per 10,000 babies of the same sex

Yosef in English-speaking countries

Yosef in each official list: latest year, count, rank and peak
Country / regionYearBabiesRankPeak
United States2025413#6632024 (470)
United Kingdom202529#1,1022013 (32)
England and Wales202529#1,0352013 (32)
Alberta20254#9732025 (4)
Quebec202513#3542013 (13)

Counts for boys. The Hebrew page for Yosef has every year and the other spellings.

Related Israeli names

Spelling variants and names that look or sound close in Hebrew.

Questions about Yosef

How do you write Yosef in Hebrew?

Yosef is written יוסף in Hebrew (with vowel points: יוֹסֵף). Hebrew is read right to left. A dictionary romanization is "yoséf".

How many people in Israel are named Yosef?

107,819 people born between 1949 and 2024 carry the name יוסף: 25 women and 107,794 men. The count comes from the CBS table of current first names by year of birth; years with fewer than 5 people are not published.

Is Yosef a boy's or a girl's name?

In Israel it is almost always a boy's name: 100.0% of the people named יוסף are men.

What does the name Yosef mean?

English Wiktionary describes it as: "Joseph (eleventh and favorite son of Jacob, by his wife Rachel)" Etymology: Third-person singular jussive of הוֹסִיף (hosíf, “to add”), thus meaning “may he add”.

Is Yosef used outside Israel?

The name Yosef appears in the official baby name lists of English-speaking countries. In the United States 413 boys were given it in 2025 (#663), per the Social Security Administration. In the UK 29 in 2025 (ONS, NRS and NISRA combined).

Sources

Israel: Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), current first names of people born 1949–2024 by sex, population group and year of birth, processed 2026-09-27. CBS publications.

Abroad

Counts are copied as published. We only merged accented spellings (Zoë = Zoe) and computed ranks and rates. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – British Columbia and the Open Government Licence – Alberta.