Muslim Name · Male · Arabic origin

يُوسُف

Yosef Name Meaning in Islam

Hebrew and Western form of Yūsuf, the Prophet Yūsuf (AS), whose story fills Sūrah Yūsuf (12) in the Qurʾān.

يُوسُف·Yosef
Meaning
Hebrew and Western form of Yūsuf, the Prophet Yūsuf (AS), whose story fills Sūrah Yūsuf (12) in the Qurʾān
Origin
Arabic
Gender
Boy
Urdu
یوسف
Pronunciation
YO-sef
Lucky number
3

Is Yosef an Islamic name? Yes. Yosef is an established name in Muslim use, Arabic in origin. Its settled meaning is: Hebrew and Western form of Yūsuf, the Prophet Yūsuf (AS), whose story fills Sūrah Yūsuf (12) in the Qurʾān. Islamic tradition asks that a name carry a good meaning and claim nothing that belongs to God alone, and this name meets both.

Read the letter-by-letter reading ↓

Section 1 · Arabic Root

Where the Name Comes From

ي-و-س

ي-و-س-ف. Hebrew/Quranic. Yūsuf (AS) is the prophet whose story occupies the longest single sura of the Quran (Q 12). Son of Yaʿqūb, sold by his brothers, raised to power in Egypt.

Section 2 · Ilm ul Huroof

Read Letter by Letter

Ya of reaching opens, Waw of connection, Sin of secret, Fa of opening. The prophet of beauty and patience.

Section 3 · Synthesis

What This Reading Says About You

Yosef's letters draw from many elements at once, a full palette, not a single note. This is a name that asks its bearer to hold contradictions gracefully: warmth and steadiness, movement and depth. Running through the reading is Al-Qayyum, the Self-Sustaining, carried by a person as a self-holding constancy. A person named Yosef carries a full weather system inside a single quiet chest.

Section 4 · What Families Say

What People Usually Mean by This Name

The Hebrew and Western form of Yusuf, preserved as Yosef in the Torah and in the Anglophone convert and diaspora Muslim community. The Quran preserves the same name as يوسف (Yusuf), the Prophet whose entire story fills Surah Yusuf.

The Prophet Yusuf (AS) is remembered in the Quran as 'a beautiful example' in the sabr under trial. Betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, imprisoned unjustly, then raised to authority over the treasuries of Egypt, he never lost his gentleness or his tawhid.

Yosef is used by Anglophone converts and by families whose Muslim identity coexists with a Jewish or Christian family heritage they honour. The letters change; the Prophet does not.

Section 5 · Bearers

Who Has Carried This Name

How to Pronounce Yosef

PronunciationYO-sef  ·  yo·sef  ·  2 syllables

All these spellings are Yosef. Each tradition keeps its own form because each one earned it.

Yosef ✓Yosef

The letters are the same. But which community spelling carries the story you were born into? Browse all names →

Different romanisations of Yosef live on different pages, each with its own context, region, and notes.

Want a different reading? Read another →

Like Yosef, these names carry Ya (ي) as their leading letter influence.

Share your reading If this reading rings true, send it to someone who carries the name, or a family choosing it.
X Facebook

About the name Yosef

What does the name Yosef mean?
Yosef means: Hebrew and Western form of Yūsuf, the Prophet Yūsuf (AS), whose story fills Sūrah Yūsuf (12) in the Qurʾān.

Behind the meaning sits each letter, each with a quality of its own. What does Ilm ul Huroof reveal about Yosef? → What does Ilm ul Huroof reveal about names like Yosef? →

Is Yosef mentioned in the Quran?
The exact form Yosef does not appear directly in the Quran. Its Arabic root, however, appears in the Quran; the name carries the root, not the verse.

The Quran shapes more Islamic names than any other source. See where Yosef sits among them. Browse all Quranic names in our collection →

What does Yosef mean in Urdu?
Yosef in Urdu is ... (yosef) in the South Asian Islamic tradition.

Centuries of Urdu writing carried the Arabic letter readings forward, and Yosef carries them too. How do Arabic letters travel into Urdu names? →

Is Yosef a good Islamic name?
Yes. Yosef is a name valued in Muslim tradition, meaning Hebrew and Western form of Yūsuf, the Prophet Yūsuf (AS), whose story fills Sūrah Yūsuf (12) in the Qurʾān. The Prophet ﷺ said: "You will be called by your names on the Day of Resurrection, so give yourselves good names" (Abu Dawud). Every letter in Yosef carries a specific spiritual quality, not metaphorically, but structurally.

The full letter-by-letter reading of Yosef sits above, jump to the letters reading ↑ jump to the letters reading ↑

Is Yosef a girl or boy name?
Yosef is traditionally a Muslim boy name meaning Hebrew and Western form of Yūsuf, the Prophet Yūsuf (AS), whose story fills Sūrah Yūsuf (12) in the Qurʾān. Used across Pakistan, the Arab world, Turkey, Malaysia, and Muslim diaspora communities worldwide, each community with their own spelling and their own story.

Browse all Muslim boy names in our collection →

What is the spiritual meaning of Yosef in Ilm ul Huroof?
Letters carry quality of origin, mercy, and love, complete spiritual reading.

The reading comes from Ilm ul Huroof, the letter-science Ibn Arabi taught. Each letter in Yosef carries an ontological role. Read the full introduction to Ilm ul Huroof →

What names go perfectly with Yosef as a sibling name?
The best sibling names for Yosef share a complementary spiritual quality, either the same root letter or a harmonious contrast. Parents instinctively seek names whose letter qualities form a coherent family field.

Names paired with Yosef most often share a letter family or a root with it; the related-names list above is a starting point.

Explore all names to find the perfect sibling pair →

Is Yosef a rare or common Muslim name?
Yosef (Hebrew and Western form of Yūsuf, the Prophet Yūsuf (AS), whose story fills Sūrah Yūsuf (12) in the Qurʾān) is used across the Muslim world. Pakistan, the Arab world, Turkey, Iran, Malaysia, and wherever Muslims name their children with intention. The specific spelling you see here is one of the recognised forms. Different communities claim their own spelling, each one a signature of a tradition.

To compare spellings of Yosef across communities, see the variants above ↑ or browse all names → See all spelling variants above ↑, or browse all names →

Is your name Yosef?

Enter the names of your parents to read the field that shaped Yosef from the start.

Read My Name Now →