Josephus

Spellings & scripts●

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●

Attested across 19 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

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◐

Josephus is also recorded as another name, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• a separate given name1.3K records spelled Josephus2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Netherlands, Italy, Canada

  Also written ̱josephus

56 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●

Josephus 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.

• In English, Flavius, Jewish general/historian

  as a name·Pronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names

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●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 103 years between 1882–2023. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Joseph Justus Scaligerb. 1540FRnot in their usual nameFrench historian (1540-1609)
• Gezelleb. 1830BEnot in their usual nameBelgian poet, journalist, teacher, monastery director and priest (1830–1899)
• Josephus Danielsb. 1862USAmerican diplomat and newspaper editor (1862–1948)
• Johan Joseph Aartsb. 1871NLnot in their usual nameDutch painter and printmaker (1871-1934)
• Henk Sneevlietb. 1883NLnot in their usual name20th-century Dutch communist politician (1883–1942)
• Peter Debyeb. 1884NLnot in their usual nameDutch-American physicist and physical chemist (1884–1966)
• Ernest Claesb. 1885BEnot in their usual nameBelgian writer (1885-1968)
• Piet Steenkampb. 1925NLnot in their usual nameDutch politician and university professor (1925-2016)
• Huub Oosterhuisb. 1933NLnot in their usual nameDutch theologian and poet (1933–2023)
• Ralf Mackenbachb. 1995NLnot in their usual nameDutch singer, actor and physicist

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●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 149 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Josephus?

We estimate roughly 69 thousand people bear Josephus (counting its spellings and scripts) across 6 countries in our records.

In which country does Josephus have the most bearers?

We estimate about 68 thousand people bear Josephus in the Netherlands, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled josephus.

Where is Josephus most common?

Josephus is densest in the Netherlands, where the national register counts about 1 in 254 people carrying it.

How common is Josephus compared with other names?

In the Netherlands, Josephus is the 62nd most common given name of 134,847 given names recorded there.

Is Josephus a male or female name?

Josephus 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 Josephus mean?

Recorded meaning: Titus Flavius Josephus, a Romano-Jewish scholar, historian and hagiographer