Yousef
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "God will increase".
Name Census estimates that about 6,577 living Americans carry the first name Yousef. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Yousef today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yousef births was 2024 (331 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yousef. 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 Yousef with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Yousef is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 16 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
6.6K
~ 1 in 52,114 Americans
Peak year
2024
331 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#766
Tracked since 1970
Census
Yousef in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 6,930 people with the first name Yousef, which placed it at #3,145 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
#3,145
National first-name rank
People counted
6.9K
6,930 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
82.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yousef
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yousef is White at 82.5%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (4.3%). 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 Yousef 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 Yousef at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White82.5% · 5,718
- Two or more races7.1% · 491
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.3% · 301
- Black or African American3.2% · 222
- Hispanic or Latino2.8% · 195
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.0% · 3
Gender
Gender distribution for Yousef
Out of the 6,659 babies given the name Yousef since 1880, 99.9% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Yousef as a male name
- Ranked #766 in 2024
- 331 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (331 births)
Yousef as a female name
- Ranked #18,061 in 2018
- 5 female births in 2018
- Peak: 2018 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Yousef appears almost entirely male. Of the 6,930 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Yousef: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yousef from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 2,718 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Yousef remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yousef 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 Yousef during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Yousefs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 27 states and territories. California, New York, Illinois recorded the most babies named Yousef, while South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 190 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Yousef
The name Yousef is an Arabic name derived from the Hebrew name Yosef, meaning "he will add" or "he will increase." The name has its roots in the Biblical figure Joseph, the son of Jacob and Rachel, whose story is told in the Book of Genesis.
The name Yousef gained prominence in the Middle East, particularly in Arab countries, following the spread of Islam in the 7th century AD. As Islam embraced several figures from the Bible, including prophets like Joseph, the Arabic form of the name became widely used among Muslim communities.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Yousef can be found in the Quran, the central religious text of Islam. The Quran recounts the story of Prophet Yusuf (Joseph), highlighting his patience, wisdom, and faith in the face of adversity. This narrative likely contributed to the name's popularity and significance within Islamic culture.
Throughout history, there have been several notable figures named Yousef. Among them is Yousef ibn Tashfin (1009-1106), the Berber military leader and founder of the Almoravid dynasty in North Africa and parts of the Iberian Peninsula. Another prominent figure is Yousef Salah Ed-Dine Al-Ayyubi, better known as Saladin (1137-1193), the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria, who led the Muslim forces during the Crusades and recaptured Jerusalem from the Crusaders.
The name Yousef also appears in the annals of Persian literature. One of the most celebrated works is the epic poem "Yousef and Zuleikha" by the 12th-century Persian poet Nureddine Abdurrahman Jami. This allegorical work tells the story of Prophet Joseph and Zuleikha (Potiphar's wife) and explores themes of love, temptation, and spiritual enlightenment.
In more recent times, notable figures with the name Yousef include Yousef Wahbi (1898-1982), an Egyptian actor and filmmaker widely regarded as one of the pioneers of Egyptian cinema, and Yousef Al-Qardawi (1926-2022), an influential Islamic scholar and preacher who played a significant role in the development of modern Islamic thought.
Overall, the name Yousef has a rich history spanning various cultures and religions, with its roots firmly embedded in the Biblical and Islamic traditions. Its enduring popularity reflects the reverence for the figure of Prophet Joseph and the widespread influence of Arabic and Islamic culture across different regions and eras.
People
Yousef + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yousef 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
Yousef: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yousef?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 6,577 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yousef 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 52,114 US residents.
Is Yousef a common name?
We classify Yousef as "Rare". It ranks above 97.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 6,659 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yousef most popular?
The single biggest year for Yousef was 2024, when 331 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yousef is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Yousef in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 6,930 people with the name Yousef, or 2.29 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,145 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 Yousef 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 Yousef?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Yousef appears almost entirely male. Of the 6,930 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Yousef?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yousef is White at 82.5%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (4.3%). 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 Yousef most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Yousef in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.5% (5,718 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 Yousef in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yousef a male name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Yousef 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 Yousef still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yousef 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 Yousef 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 are named Yousef?
Find out how many people have the name Yousef on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.