Joseph

Where Joseph comes from

From Middle English Ioseph, ultimately from Biblical Hebrew יוֹסֵף (Yoséf, literally “(God) shall add”); a son of Jacob. Doublet of Yusuf. Noun sense 1 (“one whose chastity is above temptation”) is a reference to the story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife in Genesis 39.
— Wiktionary's entry for Joseph
  • Hebrew
  • 2 syllables
Along the way
  1. 1732
    Joseph Haydn born
    Austrian composer
  2. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #7 among boys — 2,632 babies in the first year on record.
  3. 1897
    Joseph Goebbels born
    Nazi politician and Propaganda Minister
  4. 1917
    Peak, #5
    24,761 babies named Joseph — more than any year before or since.
  5. 2013
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #20.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name from Hebrew.
Namesakes
  • Joseph Haydn · Austrian composer, 1732–1809
  • Joseph Goebbels · Nazi politician and Propaganda Minister, 1897–1945
  • Joseph Fourier · French mathematician and physicist, 1768–1830
  • Joseph Conrad · Polish-British writer, 1857–1924
  • Joseph John Thomson · British physicist, 1856–1940

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.