How popular is the baby name Yosef in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Yosef.

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Popularity of the baby name Yosef


Posts that mention the name Yosef

Popular baby names in Israel, 2012

Flag of Israel
Flag of Israel

Israel recently released three lists of popular baby names.

According to the Central Bureau for Statistics, the country’s top names last year were:

  • Noam and Noa for Jewish babies,
  • Mohammad and Maryam for Muslim babies, and
  • George and Maria for Christian babies.

Here are more of the most popular baby names of 2012 within each religious group:

Jewish

Girl Names (Jewish)Boy Names (Jewish)
1. Noa
2. Shira
3. Tamar
4. Talia
5. Maya
6. Yael
7. Sarah
8. Adele/Edel
9. Ayala
10. Michal		1. Noam
2. Uri/Ori
3. Itai
4. Yosef
5. David
6. Yehonatan
7. Daniel
8. Ariel
9. Moshe
10. Eitan

The Jewish names above were listed in my source article, but the Muslim and Christian names below (beyond the #1 names) I had to translate from Hebrew using various online tools/dictionaries, so they might not be perfect.

Muslim

Girl Names (Muslim)Boy Names (Muslim)
1. Maryam
2. Linn
3. Rahaf
4. Lian
5. Rimas
6. Hala
7. Nur
8. Bisan
9. Malek
10. Aya		1. Mohammad
2. Ahmed
3. Mahmad
4. Yosef
5. Adam
6. Abd
7. Omar
8. Ali
9. Mahmoud
10. Amir

Christian

Girl Names (Christian)Boy Names (Christian)
1. Maria
2. Celine
3. Aline
4. Maya
5. Nur
6. Lian
7. Miriam
8. Natalie
9. Tala
10. Miral		1. George
2. Elias
3. Majd
4. Daniel
5. Joseph
6. Hana
7. Julian
8. Charbel
9. Jude
10. Emir

A few years ago, a group of Israeli rabbis released a list of names they thought should be off-limits to Jewish children. Ariel, the 8th most popular name for Jewish baby boys last year, was on their forbidden name list. :)

Sources: Noa, Noam top baby names for 2012, Central Bureau of Statistics

Image: Adapted from Flag of Israel (public domain)

Some top baby names in New Jersey, 2013

Flag of New Jersey
Flag of New Jersey

According to New Jersey’s Asbury Park Press, “preliminary data from the state Department of Health has names like Michael and Matthew at the top of the 2013 list for boys, and Sophia and Isabella for girls.”

That preliminary data isn’t yet available at the NJ Department of Health website, but hopefully it will be soon.

According to the SSA, Sophia and Isabella ranked #1 and #2 for baby girls born in New Jersey in 2012. Michael and Matthew ranked #1 and #5.

Also from the source article, this interesting fact about baby names in New Jersey’s Monmouth County:

[R]oughly one-third of the top girls and boys names are Orthodox names, like Chana, Chaya, Esther, Rivka and Batsheva for the girls, and Moshe, Chaim and Yosef for the boys. The Monmouth list, in fact, varies markedly both from the statewide baby names, as well as the national list.

UPDATE, 12/8/2013: Just spotted a different article with the full New Jersey preliminary list. Here it is:

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Isabella
2. Sophia
3. Emma
4. Olivia
5. Ava
6. Mia
7. Emily
8. Madison
9. Sofia
10. Abigail		1. Michael
2. Matthew
3. Jacob
4. Liam
5. Joseph
6. Anthony
7. Ryan
8. Daniel
9. Ethan
10. Mason

And another interesting fact, this time about the name Sandy:

One gender-neutral name that has trended in the past year, however, did not get the surge experts were predicting some nine months after the biggest storm in New Jersey history.

“We had no babies named Sandy in July and August, when we might have been expecting that,” Waters said.

UPDATE, 5/4/2015: The actual 2013 list, from an article about the finalized 2014 list.

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Isabella
2. Sophia
3. Olivia
4. Emma
5. Ava
6. Mia
7. Emily
8. Sofia
9. Madison
10. Abigail		1. Michael
2. Matthew
3. Jacob
4. Joseph
5. Liam
6. Anthony
7. Daniel
8. Ryan
9. Alexander
10. Ethan

Sources: Michael, Isabella top list of N.J.’s most popular baby names, Top baby names in NJ for 2013: Michael Still No. 1, N.J.’s most popular baby names of 2014

Image: Adapted from Flag of New Jersey (public domain)

Baby names you can write with a single line in cursive: Cleo, Rhys, Edward, Ursula

Declaration of Independence (detail)

I wrote a letter to a friend not long ago, and the act of writing something longhand (which I rarely do anymore) made me wonder: which baby names can be written in cursive without lifting the pen from the page?

Turns out that many names can be written this way — so long as they don’t contain letters that need crossing/dotting (t, i, x, j) and don’t start with a tricky capital such as W or X.

Here are some examples of names that can be written in script with one continuous line of ink.

  • 3 letters: Ava, Moe, Ned, Rob, Ula
  • 4 letters: Cleo, Elmo, Jada, Rhys, Zane
  • 5 letters: Carla, Jesse, Nancy, Ryder, Yosef
  • 6 letters: Edward, Jazmyn, Morgan, Nelson, Ursula
  • 7 letters: Charles, Eleanor, Jeffrey, Malcolm, Rebecca
  • 8 letters: Alphonso, Emmanuel, Mercedes, Mohammad, Randolph
  • 9 letters: Cleveland, Esperanza, Jefferson, Magdalena, Rosabelle
  • 10 letters: Alessandra, Alessandro, Clarabella, Clarabelle, Jacquelynn

For more onomastic trivia, try this list of baby names that can be typed one-handed on a QWERTY keyboard.

Image: Adapted from United States Declaration of Independence (public domain)