Joseph History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Etymology of Joseph

What does the name Joseph mean?

The Anglo-Saxon name Joseph comes from the baptismal name for the son of Joseph.

“Many of the modern directory Josephs are of Jewish extraction, but there are also a fair number of Josephs who have a purely English descent.” 1

Early Origins of the Joseph family

The surname Joseph was first found in the Domesday Book of 1086 where the Latin form Josephus was recorded. 2 Later in Norfolk, Joseph (no forename) was listed at Holme (1141-1149) and later in Lincolnshire in 1187. In Herefordshire, Umfridus filius Josep was found there in the Curia Regis Rolls of 1205 and then William Joseph was entered in the Pipe Rolls of Hampshire in 1191 and in the Curia Regis Rolls for Suffolk in 1205. 3

Joseph of Exeter, in Latin Joseph Iscanus (fl. 1190), was a mediæval “Latin poet, was, as he tells us himself, a native of Exeter, being the fellow-townsman and lifelong friend of Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury.” 4