Joseph Frank

(male) English form of the biblical Hebrew name Yosef, meaning ‘(God) shall add (another son)’. This was borne by the favourite son of Jacob, whose brothers became jealous of him and sold him into slavery (Genesis 37). He was taken to Egypt, where he rose to become chief steward to Pharaoh, and was eventually reconciled to his brothers when they came to buy corn during a seven-year famine (Genesis 43–7). In the New Testament Joseph is the name of the husband of the Virgin Mary. It is also borne by a rich Jew, Joseph of Arimathea (Matthew 27:57; Mark 15:43; Luke 23:50; John 19:38), who took Jesus down from the Cross, wrapped him in a shroud, and buried him in a rock tomb. According to medieval legend, Joseph of Arimathea brought the Holy Grail to Britain. The name was uncommon in Britain in the Middle Ages but was revived in the mid 16th century and had become popular by the 1630s, remaining so ever since.

1. German, Dutch, Scandinavian, Slovenian, Czech, Hungarian, and Jewish (Ashkenazic): ethnic or regional name for someone from Franconia (German Franken), a region of southwestern Germany so called from its early settlement by the Franks, a Germanic people who inhabited the lands around the river Rhine in Roman times. In the 6th–9th centuries, under leaders such as Clovis I (c. 466–511) and Charlemagne (742–814), the Franks established a substantial empire in western Europe, from which the country of France takes its name. The term Frank in eastern Mediterranean countries was used, in various vernacular forms, to denote the Crusaders and their descendants, and the American surname may also be an Americanized form of such a form.