Head to head · Boys' names
Joshua vs Josiah
#66 vs #54 in 2025
Josiah is a whisker ahead (#54 vs #66 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Josiah is holding its place on the charts, Joshua is stepping back from its peak.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
The tape is even: Joshua and Josiah each lead 2 measures of 6.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1880s: Joshua #242, Josiah #413 — Joshua higher
- 1890s: Joshua #345, Josiah #675 — Joshua higher
- 1900s: Joshua #460, Josiah #987 — Joshua higher
- 1910s: Joshua #500, Josiah #1040 — Joshua higher
- 1920s: Joshua #589, Josiah #1429 — Joshua higher
- 1930s: Joshua #609, Josiah #1542 — Joshua higher
- 1940s: Joshua #597, Josiah #1829 — Joshua higher
- 1950s: Joshua #501, Josiah #1787 — Joshua higher
- 1960s: Joshua #361, Josiah #2053 — Joshua higher
- 1970s: Joshua #44, Josiah #1037 — Joshua higher
- 1980s: Joshua #5, Josiah #413 — Joshua higher
- 1990s: Joshua #4, Josiah #276 — Joshua higher
- 2000s: Joshua #4, Josiah #133 — Joshua higher
- 2010s: Joshua #28, Josiah #63 — Joshua higher
- 2020s: Joshua #59, Josiah #51 — Josiah higher
Joshua stood higher in 14 of 15 decades; Josiah took the 2020s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Joshua | Josiah |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #242 | #413 |
| 1890s | #345 | #675 |
| 1900s | #460 | #987 |
| 1910s | #500 | #1040 |
| 1920s | #589 | #1429 |
| 1930s | #609 | #1542 |
| 1940s | #597 | #1829 |
| 1950s | #501 | #1787 |
| 1960s | #361 | #2053 |
| 1970s | #44 | #1037 |
| 1980s | #5 | #413 |
| 1990s | #4 | #276 |
| 2000s | #4 | #133 |
| 2010s | #28 | #63 |
| 2020s | #59 | #51 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
Around the world
Joshua
- England & Wales#50
- Scotland#75
- Canada#83
Josiah
Not charting outside the US.
National statistics offices, latest published year.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Joshua
the Lord is salvation
Yehoshua joins a short form of the divine name with a root about saving or delivering: the Lord saves, or the Lord is salvation. The shortened Hebrew form is Yeshua, which is what Greek transliterated as Iesous. The derivation is not disputed anywhere, and it is the reason the Gospel of Matthew explains the name — the text expects readers to hear the meaning in it.
Hoshea → Yehoshua → Iesous → Joshua
How it traveled
The man in the book of Joshua is Moses' successor, and the text records a detail that is easy to skim past: he was called Hoshea, and Moses renamed him Yehoshua, adding the divine element. Renaming at a turning point is a pattern in those books — Abram to Abraham, Jacob to Israel — and this is one of them.
Josiah
Yahweh supports
The Hebrew Yoshiyahu joins the divine name with a verb root usually rendered "supports" and sometimes "heals"; both readings point the same direction and the name is not seriously disputed.
Yoshiyahu → Iosias → Josias → Josiah
How it traveled
The name is Hebrew, Yoshiyahu, borne by the king of Judah who reigned in the late seventh century BC and whose reforms fill two long chapters of the book of Kings. Greek translators of the Hebrew Bible wrote it Iosias, and that form passed through Latin into early English Bibles as Josias.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Joshua
JOSH-oo-uh
JOSH-oo-uh, three syllables, stress at the front. Hebrew puts the weight at the end and sounds every syllable, yeh-ho-SHOO-ah. The English name has lost a syllable and moved the stress, which is ordinary for a name this old in this language.
- Josh — The front clipped, and a complete working name; what nearly every Joshua is called.
- Joss — A softer clipping of the same front, more common in Britain than in America.
- Shua — The back taken alone, which is the Hebrew habit and sounds like a different name entirely.
Josiah
joh-SY-uh
Three syllables, stress on the second. Some British speakers voice the middle consonant closer to joh-ZY-uh. Both are long-standing.
- Joe — The default informal short form in English, shared with Joseph and Joshua; stands alone as a given name in its own right.
- Si — An older English clipping, taken from the stressed middle syllable; also used for Simon and Silas.
- Josie — Used affectionately within families, though in the US it is far more often heard as a girl's name from Josephine.
- Siah — A modern informal short form, used the same way Isaiah is shortened.
- Also Jos.
Who has carried each name
Joshua
Joshua Bassett (b. 2000) — High School Musical: The Musical star
Joshua Jackson (b. 1978) — Dawson's Creek's Pacey
Joshua Reynolds (b. 1723) — 18th-century England's master portrait painter
Josiah
Josiah Wedgwood (b. 1730) — Pottery magnate — and Charles Darwin's grandfather
Josiah Bartlett (b. 1729) — Signed the Declaration of Independence
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Joshua if you want…
- a name fewer children share#66 in 2025 — joshua will almost certainly be the only one in school
- a name that charts abroad tooJoshua is on the national lists of England & Wales, Scotland and Canada
- a name that ages quietlyan estimated 12% chance of feeling dated by 2040, against 40% for Josiah
Choose Josiah if you want…
- a name most people already know#54 in 2025, 5,509 babies that year
- plenty of nickname options5 recorded short forms — Joe, Si and Josie
- a name that feels very nowJosiah is holding its place on the charts
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Joshua
Strengths
- The meaning is one of the clearest and most consequential in the whole Hebrew name stock.
- Josh is a complete working short form that needs no explanation anywhere.
- It is the same name as Jesus, which is a genuinely remarkable thing to be able to say and very few people know.
To consider
- A very great many people carry it, so a Joshua will rarely be the only one in a room of a certain age.
- It is closely tied to one recent American generation and dates a person fairly precisely.
- Josh arrives immediately and the full name is rarely used, which matters to families who chose it for the full name.
Josiah
Strengths
- A documented record stretching back to a biblical king of the seventh century BC, and continuous English use since the Reformation.
- Spelled one way that most Americans already recognize from scripture and from American history books.
- Established short forms in real use — Joe, Si, Siah — so a child has options without inventing any.
To consider
- It sits in a crowded sound family — Isaiah, Jeremiah, Nehemiah — and will occasionally be misheard as one of them, especially over the phone.
- The overtly biblical origin is unmistakable, which some families want and others would rather not signal.
- Josie, the affectionate form, reads strongly feminine in American English, so it may not stick for a boy.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
How each is likely to age
Joshua
12%chance Joshua feels dated by 2040
Joshua has held the top-100 across 6 different decades — it has never depended on fashion, and names like that read the same at any age.
Josiah
40%chance Josiah feels dated by 2040
Josiah sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A reading of where each name sits on the long naming cycle — computed, not measured, and explained on the data page.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Joshua and Josiah in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
Still torn between Joshua and Josiah?
Put both to the vote.
One link to your partner, your parents, your sister. Each of them gets the two names, a one-tap answer and room to say why — and every reply lands in one place.
Free to start · no account needed · everyone you invite votes in one tap
More than two in the running? Settle it with a bracket or run the full comparison with your last name.
More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists that carry both names
Every list here names both Joshua and Josiah — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Joshua or Josiah — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Joshua or Josiah?
- Josiah, in 2025: Josiah ranked #54 with 5,509 babies; Joshua ranked #66 with 4,773 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Joshua or Josiah?
- Neither is rising. Over the last five years Joshua moved down 13 places; Josiah moved down 5 places.
- Which is the older name, Joshua or Josiah?
- The US record cannot say: both were already in use when it began in 1880.
- How many people are named Joshua and Josiah?
- About 1,195,000 people named Joshua are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 146,000 people named Josiah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Joshuas or Josiahs in the classroom?
- Joshua will almost certainly be the only one in school. Josiah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025; international figures from national statistics agencies. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
Keep playing
Sixty more head-to-heads are dealt in the arena every day — or line up Joshua, Josiah and the rest of your shortlist with your last name in one printable report.
Free to start · no account needed · everyone you invite votes in one tap