Joseph
Meaning of Joseph
Joseph derives from the Hebrew name Yosef, generally taken to mean that God will add another child; the root verb means to add. It is one of the oldest names in continuous use in the West. In the Book of Genesis, Joseph is the patriarch whose brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt and who later rose to high office there, and in the New Testament Joseph is the husband of Mary.
Americans say JOH-suhf; in British English it is JOH-zif, with the stress on the first syllable in both.
The name's best-known bearers reach across music and medicine. Joseph Haydn, the Austrian composer, did much to shape the symphony and the string quartet, and Joseph Lister, the British surgeon, pioneered antiseptic surgery and made operations far safer. In the United States it has long been a staple. It held the No. 5 spot as recently as 1915, when 23,051 boys received it, and it was still No. 10 in 1990. Its use has declined sharply since: 7,303 boys were named Joseph in 2025, when it ranked No. 29.
Pronunciation
American English
- Pronunced as JOH-suhf ( /ˈdʒoʊsəf//)
British English
- Pronunced as JOH-suhf (/ˈdʒəʊzɪf//)
U.S. Popularity Chart
States Popularity Chart
Notable People Named Joseph
| Joseph Lister was a British surgeon and scientist who pioneered antiseptic surgery and transformed the safety of operations. |
| Joseph McCarthy was a Wisconsin Republican senator whose high profile anticommunist crusade in the early Cold War led to a 1954 Senate censure and the term McCarthyism, now shorthand for reckless unsubstantiated accusations. |
| Joseph Priestley was an English chemist, Unitarian minister, and polymath who published over 150 works and conducted influential experiments across many fields. |
| Joseph Smith Jr., founder of Mormonism, published the Book of Mormon at 24 and sparked a movement that grew from tens of thousands in his lifetime to millions worldwide. |
| Joseph Heinrich Beuys was a German artist and theorist who shaped Fluxus and performance art, cofounded the Free International University, and championed direct democracy. |
| Joseph John Campbell was an American writer and Sarah Lawrence literature professor whose book The Hero with a Thousand Faces outlined the monomyth and explored the human condition across world myths. |
| Austrian Classical composer Franz Joseph Haydn shaped chamber music and the symphony, earning the titles Father of the Symphony and Father of the String Quartet. |
| Joseph Carey Merrick, the Elephant Man, was an Englishman with severe physical differences who, after early sideshow exhibition, lived at the London Hospital, crafted intricate models, and became known in London society. |
| Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. - Joseph Patrick Kennedy was an American businessman and politician, the ambitious patriarch of the Kennedy family whose sons John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Ted Kennedy became national leaders. |
| Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor - Joseph II, eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and brother of Marie Antoinette, was Holy Roman Emperor and the first Habsburg Lorraine ruler from 1765 until his death. |
| Joseph Eggleston Johnston was a US Army officer in the Mexican-American and Seminole Wars who became a senior Confederate general in the Civil War and later served as president of the Aztec Club of 1847. |
| Joseph Brodsky - Iosif Aleksandrovich Brodsky was a Russian American poet and essayist. |
| Sir Joseph Banks was an English naturalist and botanist who championed the natural sciences. |
| Joseph Pulitzer was a Hungarian American newspaper publisher of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York World who became a leading Democratic figure and served one term in Congress for New Yorks 9th district. |
| Joseph Gordon-Levitt is an American actor and HitRecord founder, twice Golden Globe nominated and a two time Primetime Emmy winner for interactive work. |
