Josefina
Feminine form of Joseph, a Spanish name meaning "she will add".
Name Census estimates that about 8,722 living Americans carry the first name Josefina. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Josefina today is around 44 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Josefina births was 1930 (210 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Josefina. 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 Josefina with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
8.7K
~ 1 in 39,298 Americans
Peak year
1930
210 babies that year
Average age
44
years old
1991 SSA rank
#2,072
Tracked since 1887
Census
Josefina in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 45,585 people with the first name Josefina, which placed it at #961 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
#961
National first-name rank
People counted
46K
45,585 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
15.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
88.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Josefina
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Josefina is Hispanic at 88.9%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (9.1%) and White (1.5%). 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 Josefina 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 Josefina at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino88.9% · 40,520
- Asian and Pacific Islander9.1% · 4,129
- White1.5% · 671
- Two or more races0.3% · 115
- Black or African American0.2% · 111
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 39
Gender
Gender distribution for Josefina
Out of the 13,859 babies given the name Josefina since 1880, 99.7% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Josefina as a male name
- Ranked #7,730 in 1991
- 6 male births in 1991
- Peak: 1988 (7 births)
Josefina as a female name
- Ranked #2,072 in 2024
- 93 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1930 (205 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Josefina appears almost entirely female. Of the 45,594 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Josefina: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Josefina from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 1,670 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Josefina 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 Josefina during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Josefinas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 17 states and territories. Texas, California, New York recorded the most babies named Josefina, while Ohio, New Jersey, Kansas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 644 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Josefina
Josefina is a feminine given name derived from the Hebrew name Yosef, meaning "he will add" or "he will increase." The name Joseph is a cognate of this Hebrew name. Josefina is the Spanish feminine form of the name, and it has been in use in Spanish-speaking cultures for centuries.
In the Bible, Joseph was the son of Jacob and Rachel, and he became an important figure in the Book of Genesis. Joseph's story recounts how he was sold into slavery by his brothers, but he later rose to become a powerful figure in Egypt, second only to the Pharaoh.
The name Josefina gained popularity in Spain and other Spanish-speaking regions during the Middle Ages, influenced by the biblical figure of Joseph and the spread of Christianity. It was a common name among nobility and royalty, as well as among commoners.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Josefina dates back to the 13th century, when a Josefina de Aragón was mentioned in historical records from the Kingdom of Aragon. In the 16th century, Saint Josephine Bakhita, a Sudanese-born Italian Canossian religious sister, was canonized by the Catholic Church.
Throughout history, several notable women have borne the name Josefina. Josefina de Beauharnais (1807-1876) was the daughter of Eugène de Beauharnais and Princess Augusta of Bavaria. She became the Queen of Sweden and Norway through her marriage to Oscar I.
Josefina Carabias (1819-1869) was a Mexican poet and writer who played a significant role in the development of Mexican literature during the 19th century. Josefina Tulloch (1863-1945) was a Chilean painter and one of the pioneers of modern art in Chile.
Josefina de Vasconcellos (1904-2005) was an Argentine poet, essayist, and journalist who was a prominent figure in the literary circles of Buenos Aires. Josefina Manresa (1934-2020) was a Spanish actress known for her work in television, theater, and film.
People
Josefina + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Josefina 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
Josefina: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Josefina?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 8,722 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Josefina 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 39,298 US residents.
Is Josefina a common name?
We classify Josefina as "Rare". It ranks above 97.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 13,859 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Josefina most popular?
The single biggest year for Josefina was 1930, when 210 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Josefina is about 44 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Josefina in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 45,585 people with the name Josefina, or 15.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #961 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 Josefina 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 Josefina?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Josefina appears almost entirely female. Of the 45,594 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Josefina?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Josefina is Hispanic at 88.9%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (9.1%) and White (1.5%). 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 Josefina most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Josefina in the 2020 Census, accounting for 88.9% (40,520 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 Josefina in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Josefina a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Josefina in the SSA data are female. 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 Josefina still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Josefina 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 Josefina 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 Americans are named Josefina?
Find out how many Americans are named Josefina on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.