Joshuah
Masculine · “Hebrew "Yahweh is salvation”
Joshua and Jesus are the same name. Yehoshua shortened to Yeshua, Greek rendered it Iesous, and Latin gave Iesus — so the Greek Old Testament calls Joshua by exactly the name the New Testament gives Jesus, and English separates them only by which language it borrowed from.
How old is the name Joshuah?
Joshuah first appears in US birth records in 1969 — 56 years ago. The typical Joshuah alive today was born around 1995, making them about 30 years old. About 2,800 people named Joshuah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Joshuah most popular?
Joshuah peaked in 1985, reaching #970 nationally. Today it ranks #7679, 6,709 places below that high. See the whole 1985 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yehoshua to Joshuah
The story of Joshuah
The two English names diverged because they were borrowed at different times and through different routes. Joshua came into English from Hebrew via the Latin Vulgate's Old Testament, which transliterated the Hebrew form directly; Jesus came through the Greek New Testament, where the name had already been reshaped for Greek phonology and given a Greek nominative ending. Both are the same name. This is why the Latin Bible sometimes has to gloss the point, and why English translations of Acts 7 and Hebrews 4 have historically differed on whether to print Jesus or Joshua for the same Greek word. Joshuah peaks in 1985, alongside Joshua's own run.
Meaning
Hebrew "Yahweh is salvation"
From Yehoshua: Yeho, a form of the divine name, plus a root meaning to save or deliver. The shortened Aramaic form Yeshua is what Greek transcribed as Iesous, giving Latin Iesus and English Jesus. The Letter to the Hebrews uses the name for Joshua and translators have to disambiguate. Joshuah with a final h is an American respelling and carries no separate meaning.
How the name formed
- Yehoshua
- Yeshua
- Iesous
- Joshua
- Joshuah
Related forms: Joshua · Josué · Yusha · יהושע
Pronouncing Joshuah
JOSH-oo-uh
Three syllables, stress on the first. The final h changes nothing audible; Joshua and Joshuah are said identically. Hebrew Yehoshua has four syllables with the stress near the end.
Nicknames for Joshuah
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
- 1969
- Most boys named
- 1989106 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #970reached in 1985
- Change vs 2024
- +42.9%10 in 2025, from 7
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.
Joshuah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Joshua in English — spelling variant
- Josué in Spanish — same name
- Yusha in Arabic — same name
- יהושע in Hebrew — transliteration
Joshuahs among us
people named Joshuah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 170,808 born in 2025 was named Joshuah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Joshuah
- #7679
- Joshuah on the 2025 chart
- #73
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Joshuah went to 10 boys in 2025, but Joshua is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 4,783, which makes it the 73rd most-given boys’ name of the year — 7,606 places above the chart.
- Joshua4,773
- Joshuah10
About 1 boy in 357 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 170,808 for Joshuah itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Tyrus test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Joshuah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Tyrus climbed just as high around 1912, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Tyrus's path sketches the road Joshuah is walking now.
Joshuah 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 scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Joshuah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Joshuah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled and among the best documented of any name.
- Josh is an immediate and universal short form.
- It carries a major biblical figure and a direct link to another.
- Joshua is the standard spelling and will be substituted constantly.
- The final h adds a letter and no sound.
- The name was extremely common in the 1980s and 1990s.
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Joshuah
Masculine · #7679 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Joshuahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,800 people named Joshuah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Joshuah?
- Joshuah is one of 2 recorded spellings. Joshua is the more common one — 4,773 births in 2025 against 10 for Joshuah.
- How popular is the name Joshuah in 2025?
- Joshuah ranks #7679 among US boy names in 2025, with 10 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Joshuah?
- About 1 in every 170,808 US boys born in 2025 was named Joshuah — 10 in all.
- Will my child share the name Joshuah with classmates?
- Joshuah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Joshuah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Early#7679 · Obie#7679 · Huston#7679 · Knute#7679 · Rance#7679 · Blain#7679 · Doyle#7679 · Millard#7679
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Joshuah? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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