Yusif
A masculine name of Arabic origin meaning "God increases".
Name Census estimates that about 394 living Americans carry the first name Yusif. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Yusif today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yusif births was 2016 (27 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yusif. 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 Yusif with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
394
~ 1 in 869,935 Americans
Peak year
2016
27 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,040
Tracked since 1992
Census
Yusif in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 415 people with the first name Yusif, which placed it at #23,539 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
#23,539
National first-name rank
People counted
415
415 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
61.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yusif
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yusif is White at 61.7%. The next largest groups are Black (23.9%) and Two or More Races (6.0%). 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 Yusif 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 Yusif at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White61.7% · 256
- Black or African American23.9% · 99
- Two or more races6.0% · 25
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.3% · 18
- Hispanic or Latino3.6% · 15
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 2
Popularity
Yusif: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yusif from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 196 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Yusif remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yusif 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 Yusif during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Yusifs live
Origin
Meaning and history of Yusif
The name Yusif is the Arabic version of the name Joseph, derived from the Hebrew name Yosef. It is a name with deep roots in the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
The name Yosef originated in ancient Hebrew and is mentioned numerous times in the Hebrew Bible, most notably as the name of the son of Jacob who was sold into slavery by his brothers and later became a powerful vizier in Egypt. The story of Joseph is recounted in great detail in the Book of Genesis.
In the Islamic tradition, Yusif is the name given to the prophet Joseph, who is revered as a wise and pious figure. His story is told in the Quran, particularly in Surah Yusuf (Chapter 12), where he is portrayed as a virtuous man who resisted temptation and interpreted dreams.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Yusif can be found in the Quranic text itself, dating back to the 7th century CE. Throughout Islamic history, the name has been borne by numerous scholars, rulers, and other prominent figures.
A notable historical figure named Yusif was Yusif ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri, an 8th-century Moroccan scholar and architect who is credited with founding the University of Al-Qarawiyyin in Fez, Morocco, one of the oldest continuously operating universities in the world.
Another famous bearer of the name was Yusif ibn Yahya al-Barmaki, a 9th-century Persian vizier and member of the influential Barmakid family, who served under the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid. He was renowned for his wisdom and patronage of the arts and sciences.
In the 12th century, Yusif ibn Ayyub, better known as Saladin, was a Kurdish Muslim sultan and military leader who founded the Ayyubid dynasty and recaptured Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187.
During the 14th century, Yusif I reigned as the Sultan of Granada, the last Muslim ruler of Spain before the completion of the Reconquista by the Catholic Monarchs in 1492.
Yusif Balasaguni, a renowned 11th-century Turkic poet and philosopher from the Karakhanid Empire, is best known for his influential work Kutadgu Bilig, a mirror for princes written in the Turkic language.
People
Yusif + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yusif as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with Y
Other first names starting with Y with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Yusif: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yusif?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 394 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yusif 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 869,935 US residents.
Is Yusif a common name?
We classify Yusif as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 398 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yusif most popular?
The single biggest year for Yusif was 2016, when 27 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yusif is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Yusif in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 415 people with the name Yusif, or 0.14 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #23,539 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 Yusif 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 Yusif?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Yusif appears almost entirely male. Of the 411 people counted with this name, 99.0% 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 Yusif?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yusif is White at 61.7%. The next largest groups are Black (23.9%) and Two or More Races (6.0%). 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 Yusif most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Yusif in the 2020 Census, accounting for 61.7% (256 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 Yusif in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yusif a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Yusif 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 Yusif still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yusif 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 Yusif 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 Yusif?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.