The name Jose is a boy's name of Spanish, Portuguese origin meaning "Jehovah increases". Jose is ranked #81 on our popularity charts and is often added to lists like Most Common Names for Boys and discussed in our forums with posts like "Makeover name game: from one gender to the other".
From the experts:
Jose is as widespread in the Hispanic community as Joseph and Joe are elsewhere in the U.S., though its numbers here are starting to decrease somewhat. Jose is one of those Spanish baby names that has never crossed over into the Anglo naming culture.
The Spanish and Portuguese version of Joseph, Jose has legions of famous bearers, both past and present, from baseball's Jose Conseco to opera's Jose Carreras, to musician Jose Feliciano to actor Jose Ferrer.
Peppy nicknames include Pepe, Pepito, Peppino and Che.
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There are 2 proper ways to pronounce Jose:
The Spanish way, pronouncing the J as an H "Ho-zey"
The Portuguese way, pronouncing the J softly "ZHO-zey"
Being that I'm related to Brazil, I'm partial to the Portuguese pronunciation.