Josepha
Josepha was last recorded in 2016, when 5 babies were given it; 407 Americans have been recorded with it between 1888 and 2016 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Josepha by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Josepha mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Josepha is “a female given name.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Josepha?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #17,446, in 2016; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
13 babies in 1925, the peak
Josepha peaked in 1925, when 13 girls were given it, #2,692 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 5 | #17,446 | 2.8 |
| 2008 | 7 | #14,526 | 3.7 |
| 2002 | 5 | #16,661 | 2.8 |
| 1984 | 6 | #9,639 | 3.6 |
| 1981 | 6 | #9,608 | 3.6 |
| 1980 | 6 | #9,585 | 3.6 |
| 1979 | 7 | #8,412 | 4.4 |
| 1973 | 6 | #7,825 | 4.1 |
| 1968 | 5 | #7,492 | 3.0 |
| 1967 | 5 | #7,237 | 3.0 |
Every recorded year (57)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1963 | 6 | #6,172 | 3.1 |
| 1960 | 8 | #4,944 | 4.0 |
| 1958 | 9 | #4,329 | 4.5 |
| 1957 | 9 | #4,372 | 4.4 |
| 1956 | 11 | #3,790 | 5.5 |
| 1955 | 5 | #6,250 | 2.6 |
| 1954 | 7 | #4,893 | 3.6 |
| 1953 | 8 | #4,388 | 4.3 |
| 1951 | 5 | #5,783 | 2.8 |
| 1950 | 5 | #5,656 | 2.9 |
| 1949 | 6 | #4,954 | 3.5 |
| 1948 | 8 | #4,040 | 4.7 |
| 1946 | 6 | #4,688 | 3.8 |
| 1943 | 7 | #3,991 | 5.0 |
| 1940 | 5 | #4,687 | 4.4 |
| 1939 | 6 | #4,009 | 5.5 |
| 1938 | 6 | #4,073 | 5.4 |
| 1937 | 5 | #4,564 | 4.7 |
| 1936 | 6 | #3,924 | 5.8 |
| 1935 | 8 | #3,301 | 7.6 |
| 1932 | 8 | #3,426 | 7.5 |
| 1930 | 9 | #3,192 | 8.0 |
| 1928 | 7 | #3,964 | 6.1 |
| 1927 | 5 | #5,200 | 4.2 |
| 1926 | 8 | #3,736 | 6.7 |
| 1925 | 13 | #2,692 | 10.7 |
| 1924 | 6 | #4,748 | 4.8 |
| 1923 | 10 | #3,236 | 8.3 |
| 1922 | 9 | #3,516 | 7.5 |
| 1921 | 8 | #3,838 | 6.5 |
| 1920 | 11 | #2,998 | 9.2 |
| 1919 | 5 | #5,167 | 4.4 |
| 1918 | 10 | #3,130 | 8.6 |
| 1917 | 6 | #4,340 | 5.5 |
| 1916 | 12 | #2,571 | 11.5 |
| 1915 | 7 | #3,611 | 7.1 |
| 1914 | 9 | #2,525 | 11.8 |
| 1913 | 7 | #2,670 | 11.2 |
| 1912 | 8 | #2,245 | 14.3 |
| 1911 | 6 | #2,329 | 14.3 |
| 1910 | 7 | #2,025 | 17.7 |
| 1904 | 6 | #1,764 | 21.8 |
| 1899 | 6 | #1,498 | 25.7 |
| 1898 | 9 | #1,215 | 34.8 |
| 1895 | 5 | #1,713 | 21.4 |
| 1894 | 10 | #1,030 | 44.9 |
| 1888 | 6 | #1,208 | 33.6 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Josepha a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Josepha has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 57 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Josepha: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Josepha, and how old are they?
An estimated 145 Americans named Josepha and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (36% of everyone recorded); the median is 68 years old and half are between 47 and 75. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 598 people named Josepha (538 women and girls, 60 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 169 born in the U.S. The Census count is 3.5 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
How common is the spelling Josepha?
Josepha is a less common spelling of Josefa: SSA has recorded 407 Josepha and 4,062 Josefa since 1880.
Of these 2 names spelled alike, given to 4,469 babies since 1880, Josepha is the second most given (9.1% of them).
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
More about Josepha and names like it
- Compare Josepha and JosefaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1920sJosepha peaked in 1925.
- The top names of 1925The year the most babies were named Josepha.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Josepha alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with JMost given first.