ninan.org

Joshua

Boys' name · Late 20th-century perennial

Living in the US
~1,200,200 survival-weighted estimate
2025 rank
#66 among boys
Births in 2025
4,773 1,253,882 since 1880
Typical age
33 years, median

Joshua popularity over time

Joshua rank by birth year, 1880–2025Joshua ranked #211 in 1880 and #66 in 2025. Its best rank in the period was #3, in 2002.#10#100#66best #3 in 200218901920195019802010
Rank among US baby names by birth year, 1880–2025. Lower is more popular; the scale is logarithmic so the top of the chart is not compressed.

More children were named Joshua in 1989 than in any other year — 44,308 of them. It appears in the very first year SSA covers, 1880. Joshua has spent 55 years inside the national top 100.

The 2025 position is #66, on 4,773 births. Compared with 2015, births are down 52%.

Babies named Joshua per yearPeaks at 44,308 births in 1989.44,308 in 1989018901920195019802010
Recorded US births by year. The peak is labelled; the axis starts at zero.

How many people are named Joshua?

Roughly 1,200,200 Joshuas are alive in the US right now. That is out of 1,253,882 recorded births since 1880.

This is a survival-weighted estimate, not a headcount: every recorded birth year is multiplied by the chance someone born that year is still alive, using the SSA period life table. How the estimate works.

How old is the average Joshua?

Median age among living Joshuas: 33. The 1980s produced the largest surviving cohort. By the site’s era rules that makes Joshua a late 20th-century perennial name.

Your Joshua

Ages of living people named JoshuaHalf of living Joshuas are older than 33 and half younger.median 33020406080100
Estimated living bearers by age today. Each bar is a birth year, weighted by the chance someone born then is still alive.

Where Joshua is most common

Joshua is 2.1× as common in Delaware as it is nationally. Hawaii, Rhode Island and District of Columbia follow.

Where Joshua is used more than average5 states use the name Joshua more than the national average.Alaska: 1.8× the national rateAKMaine: not over-representedMEVermont: not over-representedVTNew Hampshire: not over-representedNHWashington: not over-representedWAIdaho: not over-representedIDMontana: not over-representedMTNorth Dakota: not over-representedNDMinnesota: not over-representedMNIllinois: not over-representedILWisconsin: not over-representedWIMichigan: not over-representedMINew York: not over-representedNYOregon: not over-representedORNevada: not over-representedNVWyoming: not over-representedWYSouth Dakota: not over-representedSDIowa: not over-representedIAIndiana: not over-representedINOhio: not over-representedOHPennsylvania: not over-representedPANew Jersey: not over-representedNJConnecticut: not over-representedCTRhode Island: 1.8× the national rateRICalifornia: not over-representedCAUtah: not over-representedUTColorado: not over-representedCONebraska: not over-representedNEMissouri: not over-representedMOKentucky: not over-representedKYWest Virginia: not over-representedWVVirginia: not over-representedVAMaryland: not over-representedMDDelaware: 2.1× the national rateDEMassachusetts: not over-representedMAArizona: not over-representedAZNew Mexico: not over-representedNMKansas: not over-representedKSArkansas: not over-representedARTennessee: not over-representedTNNorth Carolina: not over-representedNCSouth Carolina: not over-representedSCDistrict of Columbia: 1.8× the national rateDCOklahoma: not over-representedOKLouisiana: not over-representedLAMississippi: not over-representedMSAlabama: not over-representedALGeorgia: not over-representedGAHawaii: 1.9× the national rateHITexas: not over-representedTXFlorida: not over-representedFL
Same as national3× or more
Location quotient, 2016–2025. Shaded states use the name more than the country does, relative to their own births. Exact figures are in the table below.
States where Joshua is over-represented, 2016–2025. The location quotient compares the state's share of the name with the national share.
StateBirthsvs national rate
Delaware 219 2.1×
Hawaii 213 1.9×
Rhode Island 203 1.8×
District of Columbia 210 1.8×
Alaska 149 1.8×

Joshua in England and Wales

ONS recorded 938 births named Joshua in 2025, ranking it #53. That is 53% lower than five years earlier.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Counts below three are suppressed by ONS.

Where the name Joshua comes from

From Biblical Hebrew יְהוֹשֻׁעַ, perhaps from הוֹשֵׁעַ with addition of יהוה (“Yahweh”), thus meaning "Yahweh is salvation". See הוֹשִׁיעַ (“to save”). By cognate a direct equivalent to Jesus via Latin Iēsūs and Ancient Greek Ἰησοῦς from Aramaic יֵשׁוּע, akin to Hebrew יֵשׁוּעַ, a variant of Yehoshúa'. The Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible and the Greek New Testament consistently render the two Hebrew names Yehoshúa' (whence Joshua) and Yeshúa' (whence Jeshua) into Koine Greek as Iēsoûs (whence Jesus).

Etymology summarised from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0. Wiktionary entry.

Notable people named Joshua

Ordered by how many Wikipedia language editions have an article about them — a measure of reach, not of importance.
NameKnown forYearsEditions
Joshua Bassett American actor and singer-songwriter 2000 86
Joshua Kimmich German association football player 1995 71
Joshua Reynolds English painter 1723–1792 70
Joshua Lederberg American molecular biologist 1925–2008 56
Joshua Kennedy Australian association football player 1982 51
Joshua Jackson Canadian actor 1978 46
Joshua Angrist Israeli-American economist 1960 42
Joshua Cheptegei Ugandan athletics competitor 1996 42
Photo credits (7)

The sharpest rise. Births under this name jumped from 736 in 1968 to 1,329 in 1969 — 1.8 times over in a single year.

Birth records contain the rise and nothing about its cause. This site does not supply one.

People and dates from Wikidata (CC0), limited to those with an English Wikipedia article who are known by this name as their first name.

Related pages

Get this data

Every number on this page is available as JSON: /api/name/joshua.json. Free to use with attribution (CC BY 4.0).