Hosie
Masculine · “Salvation”
Hosie is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 1,231 boys against 11 girls since 1880.
English almost never makes pet forms of prophets' names. Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Malachi are used whole or not at all, and the affectionate short form is felt to be somehow wrong. Hosie is one of the very few exceptions, and it belongs to the American South, where the rule never applied.
How old is the name Hosie?
Hosie first appears in US birth records in 1882 — 143 years ago. The typical Hosie alive today was born around 1935, making them about 90 years old. About 400 people named Hosie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Hosie most popular?
Hosie peaked in 1901, reaching #683 nationally. See the whole 1901 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Hoshea to Hosie
The story of Hosie
The book that carries the name opens with an instruction most readers find difficult. The prophet is told to marry a woman who will be unfaithful to him, and to have children by her with names that spell out a judgment on the nation; when she leaves he is told to take her back and pay for her. The marriage is the message: what he is made to live through is presented as an image of what God is going through with the country, and the argument only works because the humiliation is real. It is the earliest place in the tradition where the relationship is described in those terms, and every later use of that image goes back to it.
Meaning
Salvation
Hosea is Hebrew for salvation or deliverance, from the same root as Joshua and as Jesus, which are the same word with a divine element added at the front. The pet ending on this form contributes nothing beyond familiarity. Whether a particular American Hosie descends from the prophet's name or from a surname is not always recoverable.
How the name formed
- Hoshea
- Hosea
- Hosie
Related forms: Hoshea
Pronouncing Hosie
HOH-zee
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The s between vowels is voiced, as English s always is in that position, which is why the name sounds as though it were spelled with a z.
Nicknames for Hosie
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1882
- Most boys named
- 192330 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #683reached in 1901
- Change vs 1990
- 0.0%5 in 1998, from 5
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Hosie in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Hoshea in Hebrew — transliteration
Hosies among us
people named Hosie are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Hosie sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Short, warm and easy for a child to say, with a serious name behind it.
- It works for a child of either sex, which the record confirms.
- The full form is available as a formal version whenever one is wanted.
- The record carries it for girls as well as boys, so it signals nothing on a form.
- The first syllable collides with an ordinary English word in speech.
- It is strongly dated to the turn of the last century in American records.
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What they receive
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Hosie
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Hosies are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Hosie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Hosie in 2025?
- Hosie is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Hosie with classmates?
- Hosie will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More H names
The most-given names starting with H, all years combined.
Henry#5 · Harold#991 · Harry#775 · Howard#1002 · Hunter#130 · Herbert#2641 · Herman#2363 · Harvey#251
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Hosie? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Hosie and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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