Origin
- Input
- José
- Expected output
- hebraico, pelo grego e pelo latim
Checked in Dicionário de Nomes Próprios and Behind the Name.
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meaning of the name José
José means "He will add (God adds)". Origin: Hebrew, via Greek and Latin. The reading was checked in Dicionário de Nomes Próprios and Behind the Name, and the tool below shows the sources, the caveats, its popularity and nicknames.
Checked in Dicionário de Nomes Próprios and Behind the Name.
Literal sense, reworded from the sources.
2 entries in 2 sources.
Peak in the 1960s.
4 documented nicknames.
Nobody knows for sure, which is why we leave the meaning blank. The Hebrew form is Miryam, the name of the sister of Moses. Behind the Name lists theories such as "sea of bitterness", "rebelliousness" and "wished-for child", or an Egyptian root tied to "beloved"; the Dicionário de Nomes Próprios gives "sovereign lady". These readings exclude one another.
José means "He will add (God adds)", according to Dicionário de Nomes Próprios and Behind the Name.
Origin: Hebrew, via Greek and Latin. Yosef, from the verb yasaf, "to add, to increase".
The documented nicknames are Zé, Zezinho, Zeca and Zezé. The first, Zé, is the most used according to the Nickname Finder's curated dictionary.
Yes, within what onomastics allows: Dicionário de Nomes Próprios and Behind the Name give the same reading, checked on 2026-11-02. We claim nothing about personality.
The 2010 IBGE Census counted 5,754,529, 1 in every 33 Brazilians; the largest group was born in the 1960s (1,242,231) and the name was already falling in the last decade measured. The peak was 1,242,231 people in the 1960s.
God heals
How many have the name in Brazil
Real nicknames
Sources consulted
Sources opened and checked on 2026-11-02. The text is ours, reworded from them. We use no numerology and no personality traits.