BabyNameScore

Name profile

Joseph

masculine

91First-name usabilityHighly workable
Evidence coverageDisputed

This reflects the first name on its own. The full-name report scores the complete combination separately.

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Hebrew, biblical (Old and New Testament)

Why it works

  • English speakers will almost certainly pronounce it correctly on the first try
  • spelling is short and predictable — rarely needs repeating

Popularity

Popular — #29 in the latest U.S. ranking.

Meaning and origin

Joseph's meaning is disputed among sources — the documented reading on file is that Joseph means "He will add" / "God will increase" (with a secondary, less commonly cited biblical sense of "taken away/gathered").

Joseph remained in the US top 10 boys' names from 1925 to 1972, an unusually long run of sustained top-tier popularity. First-century CE Jewish naming records show Yosef was the second most common male name among Jews of that era, underscoring the name's deep historical continuity within Jewish culture specifically, independent of its later Christian usage.

Documented origin: Hebrew, biblical (Old and New Testament)

Sources disagreeMore than one meaning or origin is documented, or the source itself flags this as uncertain.

How it travels

English and Turkish are shown by default; German is included when it adds a meaningfully different reading.

EnglishJOH-zəf — English (US/UK: /ˈdʒoʊzəf/, also commonly /ˈdʒoʊsəf/)researched pronunciation
TurkishNo strong structural signal of Turkish/English divergence for this spelling.deterministic phonetic analysis
GermanNo strong structural signal of German/English divergence for this spelling.deterministic phonetic analysis

Spelling stability: high — based on letter-pattern analysis, not a documented linguistic fact.

Also documented

French: /ʒɔ.zɛf/

German (as Josef): [ˈjoːzɛf]

Popularity without panic

Popular — #29 in the latest U.S. ranking.

Well-liked and easy to place — most people will know it.

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Real-world considerations

  • Popular — #29 in the latest U.S. ranking.
  • Spelling note: Joesph (letter transposition).
  • The Genesis text itself gives two different explanations tied to two related but distinct Hebrew verbs -- yasaf ('to add') in Genesis 30:24 and asaf ('to gather/take away') in Genesis 30:23 -- so scholarly sources note the name's 'true' original etymology is genuinely debated rather than singular, even though 'he will add' is the standard popular gloss.
Explore alternatives
Jose

Documented as a related name or variant form.

Josephine (feminine form)

Documented as a related name or variant form.

Josef

Documented as a related name or variant form.