Josiah
Masculine · “Yahweh supports”
Josiah is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 148,958 boys against 462 girls since 1880.
Josiah belonged first to a king of Judah in the seventh century BC, remembered in the Hebrew Bible for repairing the temple and finding the book of the law inside it. The Puritans took it up and carried it to New England, where it sat on ledgers and gravestones and, in one case, on the Declaration of Independence. Three syllables with the weight in the middle — joh-SY-uh — it ends softly, the way Isaiah and Jeremiah do.
How old is the name Josiah?
Josiah was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Josiah is a kid of about 12 — this name's wave is very recent. About 146,000 people named Josiah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Josiah most popular?
Josiah peaked in 2019, reaching #45 nationally. Today it ranks #54, 9 places below that high. See the whole 2019 chart.
Where it comes from
From Yoshiyahu to Josiah
The story of Josiah
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. English Protestants of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, drawn to Old Testament names, adopted the fuller Josiah, and it crossed the Atlantic with them — the eighteenth-century potter Josiah Wedgwood in England, the physician Josiah Bartlett in New Hampshire. It has stayed in American use ever since, with a much larger following among children now than in the middle of the last century.
Meaning
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.
Cultural footprint
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.
How the name formed
- Yoshiyahu
- Iosias
- Josias
- Josiah
Related forms: Yoshiyahu (יוֹשִׁיָּהוּ) · Josías · Josias · Josias · Giosia · Iosiya (Иосия)
Pronouncing 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.
Nicknames for Josiah
High
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 20167,025 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #45reached in 2019
- Change vs 2022
- −5.6%5,509 in 2025, from 5,838
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.
Josiah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Yoshiyahu (יוֹשִׁיָּהוּ) in Hebrew — transliteration
- Josías in Spanish — same name
- Josias in French — same name
- Josias in Portuguese — same name
- Giosia in Italian — same name
- Iosiya (Иосия) in Russian — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Josiahs among us
people named Josiah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 310 born in 2025 was named Josiah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Johnny test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Josiah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Johnny climbed just as high around 1944, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Johnny's path sketches the road Josiah is walking now.
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 scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Josiah is headed
Josiah should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Josiah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Josiah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- 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.
- Recognizable across Spanish, French and Portuguese as Josías or Josias, which travels well in a bilingual family.
- 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.
- Most people carrying it today are children rather than adults, so it can sound like a young name for a while — a thing that fixes itself with time.
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What they receive
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Josiah
Masculine · #54 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Josiahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 146,000 people named Josiah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Josiah in 2025?
- Josiah ranks #54 among US boy names in 2025, with 5,509 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Josiah?
- About 1 in every 310 US boys born in 2025 was named Josiah — 5,509 in all.
- Will my child share the name Josiah with classmates?
- Josiah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Josiah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Weston#55 · Logan#53 · Wesley#52 · Waylon#56 · Grayson#51 · Isaiah#57 · Thiago#50 · Caleb#58
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Josiah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Josiah and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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