Given name & surname
Josaphat
“Yah has judged”·“Yah governs”
Josaphat is a masculine given name.
Original Hebrewיהושפט
Meaning & origin
What it means
As a biblical name, Josaphat means “Yah has judged” or “Yah governs.”
From biblical name research
Where it comes from
Josaphat is a biblical name from Hebrew.
From biblical name research
How it developed
From the Hebrew verb shapat (שפט), “to judge or govern.”
From biblical name research
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1997. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
In the Bible
In the Bible, the name Josaphat appears in Matthew 1:8.
From biblical name research
Josaphat through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 16
- 16 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 1997
- 6 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 5 in 2023. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Its largest published annual count for boys was 6 in 1997. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 151 as a first name in 2020; 310 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Josaphat’s family of names
In French usage, Josaphat has a conventional equivalent in the Portuguese form Josafá. In German usage, Josaphat has a conventional equivalent in the Polish form Jozafat.
Inner ring: spellings · middle: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 1
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Spellings & scripts 1
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
Across languages 2
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
See also 5
Names our sources mention alongside this one. They are related in story or meaning, not forms of this name.
People named Josaphat
- Josaphat KotsylovskyUkrainian Greek Catholic bishop and martyr (1876–1947)
- Josaphat Louis LebuluTanzanian Roman Catholic bishopborn 1942
- Josaphat ChichkovBulgarian priest1884–1952
- Jozafat BastašićRoman Catholic bishop1740–1793
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love Josaphat, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
Johanan
“Yah is gracious”
>99% boys
Jarib
“he contends”
>99% boys
Jediael
“known of God”
>99% boys
Tiras
“but perhaps desire” · “fragmentizer or moisturizer”
>99% boys
Jezer
“form” · “shape”
>99% boys
Ahijah
“brother(s) of Yah”
>99% boys
Shaphan
“coney” · “shy”
>99% boys
Abiezer
“my father is help” · “father of help”
>99% boys