Josef

given name · Czech · Latin script

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

Josef is a given name, most frequently recorded in Venezuela, where it is the most common given name. It appears chiefly in Czech and German, written in the Latin script. Recorded meaning: a male given name from Hebrew, equivalent to English Joseph.

rarermore common
  • GTGuatemala1 in 10◐
  • CUCuba1 in 12
  • VEVenezuela1 in 16

carrying the name, one hue, darker where it is more common. Hover a country for its figure.

≈9.8M ●

across 11 countries

#4 ●

of 16M given names

8 ●

recorded for this name

Sources
618 ●

71M records

Official registry-verified

1 in 25 ◐

Czechia

Spellings & scripts●

JoseLatin · Portuguese●62M records
ЙосипCyrillic · Ukrainian●130K records
ᲘოსებGeorgian · Georgian●15K records
โจเซฟThai · Thai●1.5K records
ג'ושHebrew · Hebrew●341 records
호세Hangul · Korean●164 records
ΙωσήφGreek · Greek●81 records
ՋուզեպպեArmenian · Armenian●0 records

7 other spellings are counted as the same name:

Locally spelled Jose in BR Brazil, ES Spain, VE Venezuela and 10 more, Joseph in US United States, FR France, GB United Kingdom and 8 more, Jozef in PL Poland and Giuseppe in IT Italy.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

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.

Where in the world●

Sorted by bearers counted by national registers, records where none counts.

Where Josef is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
VE Venezuela#111,814,4735.5M rec.—4.3KJose189
AR Argentina#310,981,3105.9M rec.—4KJose198
MX Mexico#29,569,6907.5M rec.—3.6KJose318
BR Brazil#25,164,7525.8M rec.1 in 415.8MJose263
PE Peru#24,191,4022.4M rec.—696KJose185
GT Guatemala#13,716,283227K rec.—3.2KJose151
US United States#71,598,75929M rec.1 in 2081.6MJoseph618
CL Chile#51,556,471141K rec.—1KJose195
GB United Kingdom#171,221,9991.2M rec.—946Joseph304
CU Cuba#101,006,80546K rec.——Joseph88
PH Philippines#7784,5791.1M rec.——Joseph190
TZ Tanzania#2772,54112K rec.——Joseph76

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table. How that works.

Languages●

  • Czech2M71%
  • German597K21%
  • English72K3%
  • Portuguese24K1%
  • Spanish23K1%
Show as table
Languages in which the name is recorded
NameRecordsNote
Czech2,009,96171%
German596,50521%
English72,4933%
Portuguese23,5361%
Spanish22,5761%

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Josef is also recorded as 8 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • German given name753K records spelled Josef30 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Germany, United States, Austria, Netherlands

    Languages: German, English, Dutch

    Also written Joesef, JoséF, Jösef, Jósef, Josèf

  • Portuguese given name65K records spelled Josef14 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Brazil, United States, Philippines, France

    Languages: Portuguese, Spanish, French

    Also written JoséF, Jósef, Josèf, Jóséf, Jösëf

  • a separate given name20K records spelled Josef5 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in India, United States, United Kingdom, Switzerland

    Also written JoséF, Josēf, Jōsēf, Jósef

  • Hindi given name11K records spelled Josef44 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in India, United States, United Kingdom, Nigeria

    Languages: Hindi, Urdu, Bangla

    Also written Joseph, Josep, Josefa, যোসেফ, জোসেফ

  • Norwegian Bokmål given name9.7K records spelled Josef23 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, United States

    Languages: Norwegian Bokmål, Danish, Swedish

    Also written Jozef, Józef, Jósef, Jožef, Jõsêf

  • Finnish given name7.7K records spelled Josef5 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, United States

    Languages: Finnish, Estonian

    Also written Jõsęf, JõSef, Jösef

  • Indonesian given name3.4K records spelled Josef3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Indonesia, United States, Philippines, India

    Languages: Indonesian, Malay

    Also written Jösef

  • Hungarian given name1.8K records spelled Josef4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Hungary, Switzerland, United States, Slovenia

    Also written Jósef, JoséF, Josèf

67 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●

Josef is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • In German, Joseph

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

  • In English, 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…

  • 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.

Over time●

0100200300190019502000220 · 1999

Show as table
Josef in SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present), United States, 1900–2025
Yearrecords
19006
19017
19067
19077
19085
190911
191010
19118
191212
191318
191413
191524
191628
191722
191814
191924
192017
19217
192214
192312
192421
192519
192620
192716
192821
192915
193014
193113
19329
19339
193416
193514
193615
193712
193820
193913
194014
194111
194221
194319
194413
194520
194611
194721
194819
194923
195018
195121
195229
195325
195432
195538
195641
195749
195845
195937
196053
196151
196241
196354
196458
196566
196653
196741
196872
196965
197093
197189
197280
197378
197480
1975107
197696
1977119
1978123
1979161
1980151
1981131
1982149
1983130
1984170
1985172
1986159
1987164
1988177
1989156
1990166
1991154
1992163
1993170
1994179
1995168
1996175
1997183
1998211
1999220
2000198
2001211
2002195
2003188
2004185
2005218
2006191
2007165
2008158
2009125
2010129
2011137
201295
2013108
2014113
201591
201692
201781
201884
201981
202066
202172
202259
202361
202463
202544

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 122 years between 1900–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

0500100015002000Caiaphas, b. 100Karl VI, b. 1685William Turner, b. 1775Josef Stefan, b. 1835Konrad Adenauer, b. 1876Samuel Joseph Agnon, b. 1887Kurt Waldheim, b. 1918Benedict XVI, b. 1927Helmut Kohl, b. 1930Lukas Podolski, b. 1985
  • 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. 1887ILnot in their usual nameUkrainian-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).

Evidence●

Attested in 88 sources across 42 countries.

Official registers attesting Josef
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
CZ CzechiaMVČR — living population register 2017—423K#6
CZ Czechianaše jména — 2016 MVČR snapshot—211K#6
SE SwedenSkatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population)—12K#339
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex20209.6K#2,516
AT AustriaStatistik Austria — STATatlas Vornamen WFS (per-name time series 1984–2024)20246.6K#50
SE SwedenSCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023)20205.5K—
NO NorwaySSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population)—2.8K#881
FI FinlandDVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup)—2.1K#1,030
PL Polanddane.gov.pl — PESEL given names (first + second name position, 2026-01-20)20261.5K#213
BR BrazilIBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror)20221.4K—
BR BrazilIBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname)—1.4K#6,568
BR BrazilIBGE — Nomes (census name API)—1.2K#8,028

Reference works 4

  • 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)

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 848 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Josef?
We estimate roughly 9.8 million people bear Josef (counting its spellings and scripts) across 11 countries in our records.
In which country does Josef have the most bearers?
Josef is most frequently recorded in Venezuela, where it is most often spelled jose.
How common is Josef compared with other names?
In Venezuela, Josef is the most common given name of 213,120 given names recorded there.
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.
What does the name Josef mean?
Recorded meaning: a male given name from Hebrew, equivalent to English Joseph
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/josef

The same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use. Bulk access and licensing.

About this data

● measured from records◐ inferred from the name graph○ machine-generated

Data snapshot . Figures are rebuilt periodically and will change.

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 most common given name in Venezuela. Data snapshot 2026-09-12.

See how Josef parses inside a full name →