Joe
A short form of Joseph that also became a given name and, by extension, a surname.
The #3,819 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 33,270 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Joe is best known as a pet form of Joseph, ultimately from Hebrew Yosef, meaning ‘he will add’ or ‘may he add.’ As a surname, it is usually understood as having arisen from the use of Joe as a personal name or nickname, later passed on to descendants. In some records and dialect contexts it may also reflect influence from other short-name uses, but Joseph is the normal source behind the surname form.
History
The name Joseph spread widely in Christian Europe, and Joe emerged in English as a familiar spoken form. Surnames from pet forms of given names were common, especially where a father, ancestor, or local man was known simply as Joe. The surname is not especially common, but it appears in modern English-speaking populations and in records where shortened forenames were used as hereditary surnames.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Joe is one of the rare surnames that is also a very common everyday first name and nickname, which can make it hard to tell at a glance whether a historical record is using it as a forename or a hereditary surname.
From the historical record
“Gargory.— Bapt, 'the son of Grugory,' a corrupted form ; cf. Garland lor Graland. Dickens' Joe Gargery, in Great Expectations, was evidently taken, nominally speaking, from nsd life ; c£ Pick- wick, Snodgrass, &c.”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances