Joseph
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "he will add".
Roughly 1,758,265 people in the United States go by the first name Joseph, which ranks #32 nationally when sorted by estimated living bearers. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Joseph today is around 47 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Joseph births was 1956 (32,831 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Daniel (1,672,238).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Joseph. 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 Joseph with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Joseph is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 10,706 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
1.8M
~ 1 in 195 Americans
Peak year
1956
32,831 babies that year
Average age
47
years old
2024 SSA rank
#32
Tracked since 1880
Census
Joseph in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,600,664 people with the first name Joseph, which placed it at #10 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
#10
National first-name rank
People counted
1.6M
1,600,664 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
530.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
76.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Joseph
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Joseph is White at 76.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.4%) and Black (7.1%). 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 Joseph 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 Joseph at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White76.8% · 1,230,026
- Hispanic or Latino10.4% · 166,277
- Black or African American7.1% · 113,383
- Two or more races2.7% · 43,677
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.3% · 37,503
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 9,798
Gender
Gender distribution for Joseph
Out of the 2,672,746 babies given the name Joseph since 1880, 99.6% 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.
Joseph as a male name
- Ranked #32 in 2024
- 7,223 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1956 (32,748 births)
Joseph as a female name
- Ranked #8,691 in 2023
- 12 female births in 2023
- Peak: 1985 (227 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Joseph appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,600,667 people counted with this name, 99.9% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Joseph: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Joseph from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 301,410 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Joseph 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 Joseph 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 | 26,292 | 112 | 26,404 |
| 1890s | 29,000 | 187 | 29,187 |
| 1900s | 35,173 | 173 | 35,346 |
| 1910s | 179,300 | 627 | 179,927 |
| 1920s | 243,809 | 1,378 | 245,187 |
| 1930s | 180,565 | 886 | 181,451 |
| 1940s | 230,281 | 668 | 230,949 |
| 1950s | 300,006 | 753 | 300,759 |
| 1960s | 283,046 | 1,223 | 284,269 |
| 1970s | 244,838 | 1,511 | 246,349 |
| 1980s | 299,416 | 1,994 | 301,410 |
| 1990s | 260,738 | 637 | 261,375 |
| 2000s | 194,937 | 363 | 195,300 |
| 2010s | 115,686 | 156 | 115,842 |
| 2020s | 38,953 | 38 | 38,991 |
Geography
Where Josephs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, California recorded the most babies named Joseph, while Wyoming, Alaska, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 50,533 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Joseph
The name Joseph has its origins in the Hebrew language and culture. It is derived from the Hebrew name Yosef, which means "he will add" or "he will increase." The name can be traced back to the biblical patriarch Joseph, the son of Jacob and Rachel, whose story is recounted in the Book of Genesis.
The name Joseph appears prominently in various religious texts, most notably the Hebrew Bible and the Quran. In the Bible, Joseph is portrayed as a virtuous and wise man who interpreted Pharaoh's dreams and rose to a position of power in ancient Egypt. His story is one of resilience, forgiveness, and divine providence.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Joseph dates back to around 1500 BCE, when it was found inscribed on an Egyptian papyrus document. Throughout history, the name has been popular among many cultures and religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Notable historical figures with the name Joseph include:
1. Joseph, the son of Jacob (born circa 1700 BCE): The biblical patriarch whose story is told in the Book of Genesis.
2. Joseph the Betrothed (1st century BCE/CE): The husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus, according to Christian tradition.
3. Joseph of Arimathea (1st century CE): A wealthy Jewish disciple of Jesus who provided the tomb for his burial, according to the New Testament.
4. Joseph ben Matthias (37-100 CE): A Jewish historian and scholar, better known as Flavius Josephus, who wrote extensively about Jewish history and the First Jewish-Roman War.
5. Joseph Haydn (1732-1809): An Austrian composer of the Classical period, considered one of the most influential figures in the development of the symphony and string quartet.
The name Joseph has endured across centuries and cultures, carrying with it a rich history and symbolism. Its biblical roots, combined with its association with notable figures throughout history, have contributed to its enduring popularity as a given name.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Joseph
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Joseph Barbera
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Joseph Biden
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Joseph Cotten
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Joseph Crowley
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Joseph Gordon
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Joseph Kahn
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Joseph Kane
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Joseph Knollenberg
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Joseph Lerner
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Joseph Levitt
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Joseph Lewis
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Joseph Lieberman
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Joseph Mankiewicz
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Joseph Mcgrath
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Joseph Newman
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Joseph Nichol
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Joseph Pitts
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Joseph Ruben
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Joseph Sargent
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Joseph Vasquez
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Joseph Wiseman
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Joseph Zito
People
Joseph + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Joseph 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
Joseph: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Joseph?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,758,265 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Joseph 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 195 US residents.
Is Joseph a common name?
We classify Joseph as "Very Common". It ranks above 100% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,672,746 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Joseph most popular?
The single biggest year for Joseph was 1956, when 32,831 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Joseph is about 47 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Joseph in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,600,664 people with the name Joseph, or 529.97 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10 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 Joseph 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 Joseph?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Joseph appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,600,667 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Joseph?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Joseph is White at 76.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.4%) and Black (7.1%). 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 Joseph most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Joseph in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.8% (1,230,026 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 Joseph in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Joseph a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Joseph 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 Joseph still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Joseph 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 Joseph 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 share the name Joseph?
Find out how many Americans are named Joseph on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.