Josiephine
A feminine name with French origins meaning "Jehovah will add".
Name Census estimates that about 149 living Americans carry the first name Josiephine. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Josiephine today is around 80 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Josiephine births was 1927 (37 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Josiephine. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Josiephine is about 80 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Josiephines were born before 1956.
People living today
149
~ 1 in 2,300,365 Americans
Peak year
1927
37 babies that year
Average age
80
years old
1964 SSA rank
#5,709
Tracked since 1880
Census
Josiephine in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 145 people with the first name Josiephine, which placed it at #46,211 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
#46,211
National first-name rank
People counted
145
145 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
38.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Josiephine
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Josiephine is White at 38.6%. The next largest groups are Black (30.3%) and Hispanic (22.1%). 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 Josiephine 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 Josiephine at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White38.6% · 56
- Black or African American30.3% · 44
- Hispanic or Latino22.1% · 32
- Asian and Pacific Islander9.0% · 13
Popularity
Josiephine: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Josiephine from the 1880s through to the 1960s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 260 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Josiephine 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 Josiephine during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Josiephines live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. Mississippi, Texas, Arkansas recorded the most babies named Josiephine, while Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 31 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Josiephine
The name Josiephine is a feminine given name derived from the Hebrew name Yosef, meaning "he will add" or "he will increase." It is closely related to the French form of the name, Josephine, which has its origins in the biblical figure Joseph, the son of Jacob and Rachel.
The name can be traced back to ancient times and has been recorded in various forms throughout history. In ancient Egyptian texts, the name is written as "Yosepu," while in Greek, it appears as "Iōsēph." The Latin form, "Iosephus," was later adopted by the Romans.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Josiephine can be found in the works of the Roman-Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, who lived from 37 to 100 AD. He wrote extensively about the Jewish-Roman wars and is considered one of the most important sources of information about ancient Jewish history.
In the Middle Ages, the name gained popularity among Christians, particularly in France, where it was often spelled as "Josefine" or "Josefina." One notable figure from this period was Josiephine de Comines (1293-1368), a Flemish noblewoman and author who wrote a book on courtly love.
During the Renaissance, the name Josiephine became associated with several influential figures, including Josiephine of Leuchtenberg (1807-1876), a German princess and the wife of King Oscar I of Sweden and Norway. Another notable figure was Josiephine Bonaparte (1763-1814), the first wife of Napoleon Bonaparte and the first Empress of France.
In more recent history, the name Josiephine has been borne by several notable women, such as Josiephine Baker (1906-1975), an American-born French dancer, singer, and civil rights activist, and Josiephine Tey (1896-1952), a Scottish author best known for her mystery novels.
Other famous individuals with the name Josiephine include Josiephine Ruffin (1842-1924), an American publisher, journalist, and civil rights leader; Josiephine St. Pierre Ruffin (1842-1924), an American civil rights activist and suffragist; and Josiephine Brunsvik (1779-1824), an Austrian noblewoman and close friend of Ludwig van Beethoven.
People
Josiephine + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Josiephine 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
Josiephine: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Josiephine?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 149 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Josiephine 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 2,300,365 US residents.
Is Josiephine a common name?
We classify Josiephine as "Very Rare". It ranks above 70.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,061 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Josiephine most popular?
The single biggest year for Josiephine was 1927, when 37 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Josiephine is about 80 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Josiephine in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 145 people with the name Josiephine, or 0.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #46,211 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 Josiephine 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 Josiephine?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Josiephine appears almost entirely female. Of the 143 people counted with this name, 100.0% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Josiephine?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Josiephine is White at 38.6%. The next largest groups are Black (30.3%) and Hispanic (22.1%). 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 Josiephine most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Josiephine in the 2020 Census, accounting for 38.6% (56 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 Josiephine in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Josiephine a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Josiephine in the SSA data are female. 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 Josiephine still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Josiephine 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 Josiephine 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 have Josiephine as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.