Joseph - religious or not?

[Hobbes39]

I like the name Joseph for a wee boy, but my DH and I are not religious and DH thinks it's a nice name but too religious... do you immediately think of Joseph and Mary? Or technicolour dream coat?! Thanks x

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

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

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).

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

Joseph even*

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

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

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.

DS has 3 in his class Joe Joey and Joseph

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.

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

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!

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).