Joseph - religious or not?

I'm not religious at all and think it's a lovely name. I possibly would have used two religious names, Matthew Joseph had I given birth to a little boy! (My ds is adopted so couldn't choose his first name, just the middle one).

It depends where you live, OP. If you’re in Northern Ireland or the west of Scotland, I think there would be an implicit assumption that your family were catholic with a child called Joseph. Offhand I can’t think of any Protestant Josephs- all the ones I ever knew were catholic.
If you’re in England, I think there’s much less of a sectarian divide, and more widespread atheism, so you could probably use the name without any connotations. The Josephs in the Bible were both positive role models, so no negative associations with the name!

My son has two biblical names but we're not religious at all. We just liked the names. I don't think Joseph is religious. It's a lovely name

I love biblical names! And I'm an atheist. Two of mine have Old Testament names.

They're just names to me, I wouldn't assume someone was religious by using them anymore than anyone using Daniel, John, Mark, Luke etc is.

My aunt did ask if we'd converted to Judaism though!

Joseph is a lovely name, I'd have used it if it hadn't have already been used by a close family member.

I know a few little ones with the name, but not loads, it's not overly popular.

DS has 3 in his class Joe Joey and Joseph

Many of the people in the Bible weren't religious. They're just names from those countries at those times, unless the Bible stories hold a meaning for you.

One of my favourite boys names and I'm not remotely religious so I wouldn't think of it as being so.

To me, it is one reason to use it but it's used widely enough for it not to be everyone's first thought.

Joseph even*

My brothers called Jospeh, not a religious family at all and no one has ever made that connection it's just a lovely name

I'm Catholic, our DS is called Joseph, but not because it's religious - it's a handed down name in DH's family (who are not religious at all).

If you want to avoid any names with religious associations you're going to be a bit stuck for traditional English names.

Yes I think Joseph sounds religious. I also find Joe a little dull personally.

Every Joseph I know goes by Joe. And Joe doesn't sound religious at all.

I would think redid Joseph and Mary but I'm catholic and it's by far the most common name at my kids school there are 7 in my sons preschool class!!

My son is Joseph (nn Joe) and we are not religious. He was the only Joseph at his (small) school. It is a lovely, strong, traditional name.

Personally I think GoldenEvilHoor has an extreme (not meaning this disrespectfully) opinion to assume all people with those very common names are religious.

I am a Christian; my DS has a ‘common’ Bible derived name, my DD doesn’t at all. My DH and his Dsis have ‘common’ Biblical names but his parents are not in the least religious. And like I said, even if people had called their children those slightly more obviously religious names I listed, I still wouldn’t assume they were.

No I know two Josephs in families that I’m pretty sure are atheist.

It’s very much a standard name now. Names that for me would be more likely to indicate Christian parents are things like Jonah, Elijah, Joel, Noah... but even then it’s not a given. It would more be the case that I wouldn’t be surprised if I found out they were religious.

Lots of biblical names are getting popular at the moment (Elijah, Noah etc) from a lot of people who are atheists so I wouldn't worry op!

more unusual biblical names I would assume you were religious
if you had called your son Jonah Noah Elijah or Aaron 40 years ago it would have seemed you were religious as they were not popular back then but Joseph David Peter Paul would not have fallen into that category

really all names that have been used for 100's if not 1000's of years either have religious or mythical roots or are the names of Royalty ie William Henry Edward Richard

GoldenEvilHoor I remember your username from other threads and I think your context is likely to be very different to OP’s. In most parts of the U.K. Joseph doesn’t necessarily imply that the family are religious. Joseph was VERY popular from the mid 90s to mid 2000s and has only fairly recently dipped.

My family are quite religious so I've grown up with religion & was a regular church goer as a child. The name doesn't immediately spark religious to me! It's a great name & I've never met a twatty Joseph!

It's a name heavily associated with Christianity but it's obviously not uncommon for people who aren't Christians to have this name. Would it really matter if someone wondered if your son's a Christian at some point in his life?

I have a Joseph and I'm not vaguely religious. He's Joe most of the time. One of his sisters also has a biblical name (not Mary!) and no one has ever commented.

I wouldn't assume that a family with a Joseph was religious. It's a classic name.