📖 About Josefa
Josefa is the feminine form of José and Joseph, meaning 'God will increase'; it was one of Brazil's most popular names from the 1930s through the 1960s, especially in the rural Northeast, and is honoured across the Spanish world by the Mexican independence heroine Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez.
📍 Details
- OriginPortuguese
- Gender♀ Female
- MeaningGod will increase
⭐ Famous People
- Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez (La Corregidora) — Mexican independence hero (1768-1829), wife of the Corregidor of Querétaro; when authorities discovered the independence conspiracy in September 1810, she was placed under house arrest but managed to send a secret warning to Father Miguel Hidalgo; her message enabled Hidalgo to ring the Grito de Dolores on September 16, 1810, launching Mexican independence. She was imprisoned for years and is one of Mexico's most revered national heroines.
- Josefa de Óbidos — Portuguese Baroque painter (c. 1630-1684), one of the most accomplished artists of 17th-century Iberia and one of the very few women painters of the period to achieve significant recognition; her richly coloured still lifes and religious paintings show extraordinary technical mastery; her work is displayed in major Portuguese museums and she appears on a Portuguese postage stamp.
- Josefa Idem — Italian-German kayak sprint athlete (born 1964), one of the most decorated Olympians in her discipline; competed in seven Olympic Games between 1984 and 2008, winning gold at the 1996 and 2004 Olympics and multiple World Championship medals; later served as Italy's Minister for Sport (2013).
- Josefa Llanes Escoda — Filipino civic leader and social worker (1898-1945), founder of the Girl Scouts of the Philippines; during WWII she worked with the Philippine resistance against Japanese occupation, was captured and executed; honoured on the Philippine 1,000-peso banknote as a national heroine.