Yosef
A Hebrew name from a root meaning "he will add", and the far rarer spelling of Józef. Just 164 men in Poland carry it, so most Poles will never meet one.
Yosef Pronunciation
Yosef is pronounced ih-O-sef (/ɨˈɔsɛf/).
What Yosef means
Where Yosef comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Yosef comes from Hebrew. Its root is the verb "to add," and the whole name works like a short clause: "he will add." The Polish gloss makes the wish plain, "niech bóg przymnoży."
In the book of Genesis, Rachel names her son and asks God to add to her another son (Genesis 30:24). That is where the name begins. The boy grows into the Joseph sold into Egypt, the one who reads Pharaoh's dreams and stores grain against a coming famine. His name and his work rhyme. He adds.
Jewish families kept the name in its Hebrew shape and did not shrink it into a pet form. On a Polish class register you can still meet a Yosef sitting among the other children, his name unchanged from Rachel's. The meaning holds. He will add.
How many people are named Yosef
1 in 130160 men in Poland is named Yosef. 164 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #2525 among male names.
Yosef's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 boys were given the name in 2025. It has been stable for a decade.
Yosef as a middle name
Yosef is a first name for 164 men in Poland and a middle name for another 122, a 57/43 split, almost evenly. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 635th, between Polikarp (122) and Efe (121).
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#633 Michele122
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#634 Polikarp122
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#635 Yosef122
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#636 Efe121
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#637 Gordon121