Muslim Name · Male · Hebrew (preserved in Quranic Arabic) origin
Yusuf Name Meaning in Islam
The prophet Joseph.
- Meaning
- The prophet Joseph; God increases or adds
- Origin
- Hebrew (preserved in Quranic Arabic)
- Gender
- Boy
- Urdu
- یوسف
- Pronunciation
- YOO-suf /ˈjuː.suf/
- Lucky number
- 3
Is Yusuf an Islamic name? Yes. Yusuf is an established name in Muslim use, Hebrew (preserved in Quranic Arabic) in origin. Its settled meaning is: The prophet Joseph; God increases or adds. Its root appears in the Quran, and the name is in continuous use across the Muslim world. It was carried by Yusuf al-Qaradawi. 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-ف. Yūsuf (AS), prophet of Q 12, the longest single-sura narrative in the Quran. Son of Yaʿqūb, sold to Egypt, raised to vizierate, embodiment of beauty and patience.
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 patient beauty.
Section 3 · Synthesis
What This Reading Says About You
Yusuf'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 Yusuf is many things at once, and gets to choose which shows up when.
Section 4 · What Families Say
What People Usually Mean by This Name
The Prophet of the most beautiful story. Allah says: 'We narrate to you the most beautiful of stories (ahsana al-qasas) in what We have revealed to you of this Quran' (12:3), the entire Surah Yusuf is that story. Sold into slavery by his brothers. Thrown into a well. Accused falsely by a woman of power. Imprisoned for years. Then appointed minister of Egypt, and when his brothers came begging for food, not recognising him, he revealed himself and said: 'No blame on you today. May Allah forgive you' (12:92).
No bitterness. No revenge. Just the man who had been given the divine quality of sabr (patience) in every station, and who attributed everything, his beauty, his knowledge, his position, to Allah alone. 'My Lord was Latif in what He wills' (12:100).
Top Muslim boys name globally across Pakistan, Arab world, Turkey, Indonesia, West Africa.
Yūsuf (AS) has an entire surah named after him. Surah Yūsuf (Chapter 12), described in its opening as 'aḥsan al-qaṣaṣ' (the most beautiful of stories). His narrative spans the whole surah in 111 verses, the most complete prophetic story in the Quran.
The Quranic Yūsuf is the standard of patience, of beauty (jamāl), of trust in Allah through extreme trial, and of forgiveness toward those who wronged him. The root ي-س-ف is non-Arabic (Hebrew origin) but the name is preserved exactly in Quranic Arabic.
Section 5 · Bearers
Who Has Carried This Name
- Yusuf al-Qaradawi . Egyptian-Qatari Sunni scholar, prominent voice in 20th-century Islamic jurisprudence
How to Pronounce Yusuf
/ˈjuː.suf/ Long /uː/ in the first syllable.Is this the spelling you searched?
Same name, different doors: each spelling of Yusuf belongs to a particular community of speakers.
The letters are the same. But which community spelling carries the story you were born into? Browse all names →
Variants of this name
Different romanisations of Yusuf live on different pages, each with its own context, region, and notes.
In English this is Joseph. The two names belong to the same prophet, and that page reads the Quranic and Biblical accounts side by side.
Want a different reading? Read another →
Names sharing the ي Ya influence
Like Yusuf, these names carry Ya (ي) as their leading letter influence.
Cross-cultural Variations
Yusuf across the Muslim world
The same Arabic name is romanised differently across communities, same letters, same root, same reading. Each form carries the same spiritual structure; each entry is its own canonical reading on AsrNaam.
- Yosef
- Yousef. Arab world
- Youssef. French Maghrebi
- Youssoupha
- Yousuf. South Asian
Frequently Asked Questions
About the name Yusuf
What does the name Yusuf mean?
Behind the meaning sits each letter, each with a quality of its own. What does Ilm ul Huroof reveal about Yusuf? → What does Ilm ul Huroof reveal about names like Yusuf? →
Is Yusuf mentioned in the Quran?
Most Islamic names trace back to the Quran in some form. Browse where Yusuf fits in. Browse all Quranic names in our collection →
What does Yusuf mean in Urdu?
Centuries of Urdu writing carried the Arabic letter readings forward, and Yusuf carries them too. How do Arabic letters travel into Urdu names? →
Is Yusuf a good Islamic name?
The letters of Yusuf, each with its own reading, are laid out above ↑ jump to the letters reading ↑
Is Yusuf a boy or girl name?
What is the spiritual meaning of Yusuf in Ilm ul Huroof?
This is Ilm ul Huroof, the classical Islamic science of letters in the line of Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi. Every Arabic letter under Yusuf is an ontological principle, not just a sound. Read the full introduction to Ilm ul Huroof →
What names go perfectly with Yusuf as a sibling name?
For sibling names that move with Yusuf, scan the related-names list above and follow letter family and shared root.
Is Yusuf a rare or common Muslim name?
Want to see how Yusuf is spelled in other communities? Use the variants above ↑ or browse all names → See all spelling variants above ↑, or browse all names →
Is your name Yusuf?
Bring in your parents' names, the field they formed is part of what Yusuf became in you.
Read My Name Now →