BabyNameScore

Jose

ho·SEH · Spanish/Portuguese form of the Hebrew biblical name Joseph · 2 syllables

Jose is comfortably familiar.

90/100

Strong Practical Fit

Balanced across pronunciation, everyday use, lifetime fit and international use.

Name Profile

  1. Pronunciation & Spelling

    Clear, with one common misreading

    A documented English pronunciation is on file: ho-SEH. JOZE (anglicized as if it rhymed with 'doze', ignoring the Spanish two-syllable ho-SEH).

    91/100

  2. Everyday Use

    Low risk

    Shortens naturally in everyday use, with three established short forms.

    95/100

  3. Growing Up

    Strong lifetime fit

    Short enough to work in every register without a nickname.

    86/100

  4. International Use

    Broad international fit

    Works cleanly across the assessed languages and writing systems.

    85/100

NAME DETAILS

COMMON FORMS
Pepe
Cheche
Pepito
OTHER-LANGUAGE FORMS
Joseph
Giuseppe
Josef
Józef
Iosif
Yousuf/Yusuf
Seosamh
ORIGIN & HISTORY

About the name

Jose is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the Hebrew Joseph, tracing to Jacob's son Joseph in Genesis, sold into slavery by his brothers before rising to become vizier of Egypt. In Spanish-speaking Catholic culture, Jose is inseparable from devotion to Saint Joseph, husband of Mary, and is frequently paired with Maria in double names (e.g., Jose Maria, or as a feminine second element). Shares Joseph's underlying Hebrew root yasaf ('to add, increase'); like Joseph, biblical scholarship notes the Genesis text itself plays on two related but distinct Hebrew verbs (yasaf 'to add' and asaf 'to gather/take away') in explaining the name, so the 'increase' gloss, while standard, is a simplification of a etymology the Bible itself treats as layered.

  1. José (Spanish/Portuguese, with acute accent). "God will add" / "Jehovah increases" (shared with Joseph). Jose entered the US top-40 boys' names from the 1960s through the early 2000s alongside rising Hispanic immigration and demographic growth, peaking at #28 in 2004 per SSA-based tracking, before declining somewhat in subsequent decades even as it remains a comfortably common name.
  2. Mythological and religious contextJose's religious weight in the Spanish-speaking world comes overwhelmingly from Saint Joseph (San Jose), husband of the Virgin Mary and foster father of Jesus, honored as patron of workers (feast of St. Joseph the Worker, May 1, instituted by Pope Pius XII in 1955) and as patron/protector of the universal Catholic Church (a title given by Pope Pius IX). This devotional weight is a major reason for the name's persistence across generations in Catholic Latin America and Spain.
POPULARITY

Jose over time

United States
#95RANK

Rank #95 gives national context, not a classroom forecast.

Recognizable without feeling automatic. Ranked #95 in the U.S., 2025.

SourceU.S. Social Security Administration · 2025 release

Pronunciation & Forms

SAY IT

ho·SEH

STRESS ON THE SECOND SYLLABLE

COMMON FORMS
  • Pepe
  • Cheche
  • Pepito
CLOSE SPELLINGS
  • Joséaccented
OTHER-LANGUAGE FORMS
  • JosephEN
  • GiuseppeIT
  • JosefDE
  • JózefPL
  • IosifRU
  • Yousuf/YusufAR
  • SeosamhGA
PRACTICAL LIFE

How This Name Lives

AT SCHOOL & DAY TO DAY

Warm and familiar for a child within Hispanic/Latino family and community contexts; commonly used in full rather than heavily nicknamed in childhood.

INTO ADULTHOOD

Reads as a solid, traditional, professionally unremarkable name across Spanish-speaking contexts; in English-dominant US workplaces it is now broadly recognized rather than exoticized, reflecting its long-standing top-40-then-top-100 US presence.

Cultural Footprint

Jose was the most popular boys' name in Spain for the first half of the 20th century, and remains one of the defining given names of the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking world. In the US, Jose is closely tied to Hispanic and Latino identity: 2020 Census-sourced data cited by name-statistics aggregators shows around 96% of people bearing the name Jose reporting Hispanic origin.

TRACEABLE ORIGIN
  1. Jose Mourinhofootball/soccer manager
  2. Jose Altuvebaseball player
  3. Jose Aldomixed martial artist
  4. Jose SaramagoPortuguese novelist, using the José spelling
  5. Saint Joseph (San Jose)Era

Community Impressions

Jose carries strong, specifically Hispanic cultural warmth and familiarity in the US rather than reading as a generic 'Spanish-sounding' name — it is one of the most enduringly common given names in Mexican, Central American, and broader Latin American communities. It signals cultural/family heritage more directly than its English cognate Joseph, and in the US is closely tied to Catholic naming tradition (Saint Joseph) rather than to any secular or trend-driven association.

How this name is commonly received · not used in the score

More about Jose

FORMALITY

Jose (or José) functions as both the formal and everyday form; Pepe is the primary informal/nickname register in Spanish-speaking communities.

Names around it

JosephJosue
EDITORIAL SYNTHESIS

The Decision

Jose is spelled without unusual letter patterns, and it holds up in everyday use. Surname-dependent compatibility remains unassessed until a surname is added.

STRENGTH

A documented English pronunciation is on file. Short enough to work in every register without a nickname.

BEST FIT

Everyday Use is the strongest-scoring part of this name — no obvious nickname traps, rhymes, or initial issues detected.

FULL-NAME CHECK

See how it works with a surname.

Jose