MEANING & HISTORY
What does Josefa mean?
Josefa is the Spanish and Portuguese feminine form in the Joseph family. The older Hebrew name Yosef expresses the idea that God will add.
The final -a belongs to the feminine adaptation, rather than creating a second component meaning. Josefa, Josefina and Josephine are related names, but each has a distinct formation and spelling. The consulted name reference confirms the relationship; the dictionary’s bare given-name listing should not be mistaken for a separate lexical root.
The religious wording explains the history without defining the beliefs of every bearer.
References for this explanation
Pronunciation & syllables
Dictionary readings are kept by language. Select the reading that matches your intended pronunciation. Dots show the source’s written divisions; they are not a universal syllable count across languages.
Wiktionary contributors / Kaikki / Wiktextract · CC BY-SA 4.0
Origin and name formation
Language-specific accounts from the dictionary. A shared spelling can have more than one history.
SpanishEtymology & source
a female given name
Wiktionary: Josefa (Spanish) ↗ · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0
Adapted from Wiktionary contributors via Kaikki/Wiktextract. Source accounts remain in their original English; editorial summaries and filters are adapted. Attribution and downloads
People with the name Josefa
Public figures and other documented namesakes linked by an explicit given-name claim. This is a selection of records, not a popularity ranking.
DOCUMENTED NAMESAKE
Imee Marcos
Filipina politician and former actress (born 1955)
DOCUMENTED NAMESAKE
Josefa Llanes Escoda
Filipino heroine and suffragist (1898–1945)
The record establishes the name association, not the person’s intended meaning, pronunciation or ancestry. Descriptions are attributed to Wikidata contributors (CC0).
Use in Philippine-linked records
Public-record transcription
7
eligible source records · 2001
This spelling is reported in an openly licensed transcription of elected-candidate records. This is a record count, not a birth count or national popularity measure.
OpenHalalan / COMELEC ↗Wikidata
6
distinct person records with an explicit given-name claim
Community-edited coverage, not a census or birth registry. Examples: Imee Marcos, Josefa Llanes Escoda
PSA · OFFICIAL BIRTH RECORDS
Josefa in the birth records
Exact spelling and stated year in the published name tables. Read the counts as individual snapshots.
Tables included: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024. The 2016 fact sheet lists five names per sex; the later tables include ten. Missing counts are not inferred. Sex categories follow the official tables, independently of dictionary gender labels. Explore the official tables →
Similar names to Josefa
Names with a similar opening or ending, ordered by spelling distance. Similar spelling does not imply the same meaning or origin.
Names in this collection
- Josef♂God will increase
- Jose♂Related to Joseph: adding or increasing
- José♂God will add
- Josefina♀Feminine form of José; God will add
- Joseph♂God will add
- Joshua♂Yahweh is salvation
- Joanna♀God is gracious
- Joe♂Short form of Joseph
What rhymes with Josefa?
No dictionary-confirmed rhyme match is available for this spelling in the current catalogue.
Names with a similar written ending
Spelling suggestions; these are not verified phonetic rhymes.
Recorded combinations with Josefa
2 source-reported compound forms include this name as a component. Each part keeps its own history.
Names in this collection
Explore combinations →Explore Josefa further
Follow the sources
- OpenHalalan — pinned 2001 COMELEC transcription (opens in a new tab)
Source-reported given-name form in a row with a separate explicit middle initial; ODbL-1.0.
- COMELEC — 2001 List of Elected Candidates (opens in a new tab)
Original document identified by the transcription; selected PDF entries were spot-checked, not every imported row.
- Wikidata given-name item Q617272 — Josefa (opens in a new tab)
Given-name identity, native labels, language associations and explicit class where present; not lexical meaning or population frequency.
- Wikidata — Imee Marcos (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name claim P735 linking to Q617272 and citizenship claim P27 linking to Philippines Q928; community-edited evidence, not a civil-registry record.
- Wikidata — Josefa Llanes Escoda (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name claim P735 linking to Q617272 and citizenship claim P27 linking to Philippines Q928; community-edited evidence, not a civil-registry record.
- Wiktionary contributors — Josefa (Spanish) (opens in a new tab)
Language-specific given-name etymology; shared spelling does not prove every bearer has this origin.
- Behind the Name — josefa (opens in a new tab)
Spanish/Portuguese feminine Joseph form. Consulted editorial entry, not submitted user content.
- Wiktionary contributors — Joseph (English) (opens in a new tab)
Consulted Hebrew Yosef account supplies God-shall-add root for feminine Joseph family; CC BY-SA 4.0.