Jose
A masculine Spanish name derived from Joseph meaning "he will add".
Name Census estimates that about 523,952 living Americans carry the first name Jose. It sits at #91 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (99.3% of registrations). The average person named Jose today is around 35 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jose births was 2002 (12,916 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Donna (523,137).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jose. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Jose with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Jose is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 4,220 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
524K
~ 1 in 654 Americans
Peak year
2002
12,916 babies that year
Average age
35
years old
2024 SSA rank
#91
Tracked since 1880
Census
Jose in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,211,107 people with the first name Jose, which placed it at #16 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#16
National first-name rank
People counted
1.2M
1,211,107 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
401.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
96.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jose
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jose is Hispanic at 96.0%. The next largest groups are White (2.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Jose described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Jose at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino96.0% · 1,162,778
- White2.3% · 28,145
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 12,148
- Black or African American0.5% · 5,544
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 1,358
- Two or more races0.1% · 1,134
Gender
Gender distribution for Jose
Out of the 592,999 babies given the name Jose since 1880, 99.3% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Jose as a male name
- Ranked #91 in 2024
- 3,768 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2002 (12,868 births)
Jose as a female name
- Ranked #14,219 in 2024
- 6 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1990 (113 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jose appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,211,106 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Jose: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jose from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 119,777 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jose by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Jose during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 910 | 0 | 910 |
| 1890s | 947 | 27 | 974 |
| 1900s | 1,627 | 15 | 1,642 |
| 1910s | 5,899 | 69 | 5,968 |
| 1920s | 14,447 | 211 | 14,658 |
| 1930s | 12,297 | 209 | 12,506 |
| 1940s | 16,818 | 193 | 17,011 |
| 1950s | 31,442 | 288 | 31,730 |
| 1960s | 42,036 | 398 | 42,434 |
| 1970s | 66,388 | 724 | 67,112 |
| 1980s | 86,645 | 839 | 87,484 |
| 1990s | 119,036 | 741 | 119,777 |
| 2000s | 115,739 | 365 | 116,104 |
| 2010s | 55,175 | 102 | 55,277 |
| 2020s | 19,373 | 39 | 19,412 |
Geography
Where Joses live
The SSA's state-level files cover 49 states and territories. Texas, California, New York recorded the most babies named Jose, while Montana, West Virginia, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 11,938 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jose
The name Jose is derived from the ancient Hebrew name Yosef, which means "he will add" or "he will increase." It is a masculine given name that has its origins in the biblical figure Joseph, the favored son of Jacob whose story is told in the Book of Genesis.
Jose first appeared in the Spanish and Portuguese languages as a result of the Spanish and Portuguese translations of the Bible, where the name Joseph was rendered as Jose. The name gained widespread popularity in Spain and Portugal during the Middle Ages, particularly after the widespread veneration of Saint Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus Christ.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Jose can be found in the 12th century, when a Spanish nobleman named Jose de Bleda was mentioned in a legal document from the Kingdom of Aragon. In the 13th century, Jose de Ferrer, a Catalan philosopher and theologian, gained recognition for his scholarly works.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Jose. These include Jose Rizal (1861-1896), a Filipino nationalist and polymath who was executed by Spanish colonial authorities for his political activism; Jose Marti (1853-1895), a Cuban poet and revolutionary who played a significant role in the fight for Cuban independence; and Jose de San Martin (1778-1850), an Argentine general who led the fight for independence from Spanish rule in Argentina, Chile, and Peru.
Other famous individuals named Jose include Jose Clemente Orozco (1883-1949), a renowned Mexican muralist and painter; Jose Raul Capablanca (1888-1942), a Cuban chess player widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time; and Jose Canseco (born 1964), a former American professional baseball player and author.
The name Jose has also been borne by several saints and religious figures, such as Saint Jose de Anchieta (1534-1597), a Spanish Jesuit missionary who worked in Brazil, and Saint Jose Maria Escriva (1902-1975), the founder of Opus Dei, a Catholic organization.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Jose
People
Jose + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jose as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with J
Other first names starting with J with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Jose: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jose?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 523,952 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jose going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 654 US residents.
Is Jose a common name?
We classify Jose as "Very Common". It ranks above 99.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 592,999 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jose most popular?
The single biggest year for Jose was 2002, when 12,916 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jose is about 35 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jose in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,211,107 people with the name Jose, or 400.99 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #16 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Jose in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Jose?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jose appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,211,106 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Jose?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jose is Hispanic at 96.0%. The next largest groups are White (2.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Jose most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Jose in the 2020 Census, accounting for 96.0% (1,162,778 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Jose in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jose a male name?
Yes, 99.3% of people registered as Jose in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Jose still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jose in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Jose can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have Jose as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many people have the name Jose on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.