Jozef
From Hebrew, where it carried a wish more than a label: "he will add", a prayer that God would grow the family. It's rare in Poland now, a name most people have never met, though a handful of boys still get it each year.
Jozef Pronunciation
Jozef is pronounced YO-zef (/ˈjɔzɛf/).
What Jozef means
Where Jozef comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Józef comes from Hebrew, where the name carried the sense "he will add." The words point past the child toward a family, a wish that God would increase it and give it more. Polish keeps that reading as niech Bóg pomnoży.
Christianity handed the name its great patron in Joseph, the carpenter who raised Jesus, and his feast on the nineteenth of March grew into a crowded name-day across Poland. Later it belonged to Józef Piłsudski, who led the country back to independence in 1918. Open an old school register and the name still sits near the top of its generation.
The name bends easily. Ziuta is its worn-down pet form, soft and small. For girls it turns into Józefa and the more ornate Józefina. The accented spelling, Józef, stands closest to the Hebrew root that began it all, "he will add."
How many people are named Jozef
1 in 71873 men in Poland is named Jozef. 297 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1752 among male names.
Jozef's popularity over time
2 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #1626 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2024.
Where parents choose Jozef
Jozef is most popular in Lesser Poland, 852% above the national average (2 boys born 2019–2025).
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Lesser Poland
+852%1 in 113,458 babies
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Lesser Poland+852% 2 born1 in 113,458 babies+852%
Jozef as a middle name
Jozef is a first name for 297 men in Poland and a middle name for another 606, a 33/67 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 289th, between Francis (606) and Szczęsny (604).
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#287 Urban609
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#288 Francis606
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#289 Jozef606
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#290 Szczęsny604
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#291 Ambroży595