Josue
Masculine · “YHWH is salvation”
Josue is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 57,689 boys against 185 girls since 1880.
Josue is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the name carried by Moses's successor in the Hebrew Bible — the same name English speakers know as Joshua, arriving by a different road. It has been written this way in Latin since Jerome's Vulgate and in Spanish for centuries, and it still reaches American birth records mainly through Spanish-speaking families. Two syllables, all vowels and air: ho-SWEH.
How old is the name Josue?
Josue first appears in US birth records in 1924 — 101 years ago. The typical Josue alive today was born around 2006, making them about 19 years old. About 56,500 people named Josue are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Josue most popular?
Josue peaked in 2007, reaching #181 nationally. Today it ranks #330, 149 places below that high. See the whole 2007 chart.
Josue appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Yehoshua to Josue
The story of Josue
The name begins as Hebrew Yehoshua, borne in the Hebrew Bible by the leader who took the Israelites into Canaan after Moses and who gives his name to the Book of Joshua. When Jewish translators rendered the scriptures into Greek, Yehoshua became Iesous; Latin Bibles wrote it Iosue, and from that Latin spelling came Spanish and Portuguese Josué. English took a separate route back to the Hebrew and produced Joshua, which is why the two look so unalike for the same name. Josué traveled with Spanish and Portuguese across the Atlantic, and in the United States it appears most strongly in Texas, California and Florida.
Meaning
"YHWH is salvation" — God is deliverance
From Hebrew Yehoshua, built from the divine name and the root for salvation or rescue.
How the name formed
- Yehoshua
- Iesous
- Iosue
- Josué
- Josue
Related forms: Joshua · Josué · Josué · Josué · Giosuè · Yehoshua
Pronouncing Josue
ho-SWEH
That is the Spanish pronunciation, stress on the last syllable, with a breathy h. In Portuguese and French it is close to zho-ZWEH. English speakers unfamiliar with the name often try JOSS-oo-ay or ho-SOO-ay, so expect to correct it now and then.
Nicknames for Josue
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
- 1924
- Most boys named
- 20082,169 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #181reached in 2007
- Change vs 2023
- −8.8%1,026 in 2025, from 1,125
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.
Josue in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Joshua in English — same name
- Josué in Spanish — spelling variant
- Josué in Portuguese — spelling variant
- Josué in French — spelling variant
- Giosuè in Italian — same name
- Yehoshua in Hebrew — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Josues among us
people named Josue are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 1,665 born in 2025 was named Josue
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 Ramon test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Josue's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ramon climbed just as high around 1930, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ramon's path sketches the road Josue is walking now.
Josue 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 Josue is headed
Josue should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Josue beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Josue in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The same name as Joshua, so its history and meaning are well documented and instantly recognizable once the connection is explained.
- Spelled identically in Spanish, Portuguese and French, which makes it travel well across families and borders.
- A documented line running from the Hebrew Bible through Greek and Latin scripture into modern Romance languages.
- Comes with a ready-made English short form, Josh, already in wide use.
- The Spanish spelling carries an accent, Josué, and US records generally drop it. Decide early which version goes on official documents, and expect the accent to vanish in forms and databases either way.
- Pronunciation splits along language lines: ho-SWEH among Spanish speakers, various English approximations elsewhere. Most people named Josue end up answering to both.
- Outside its strongest regions the name is less familiar, so it may be heard as Joshua or asked to be spelled. It has been in American records for a century, which makes the correction an easy one.
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What they receive
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Josue
Masculine · #330 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Josues are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 56,500 people named Josue are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Josue in 2025?
- Josue ranks #330 among US boy names in 2025, with 1,026 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Josue?
- About 1 in every 1,665 US boys born in 2025 was named Josue — 1,026 in all.
- Will my child share the name Josue with classmates?
- Josue will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Josue
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Phoenix#329 · Cruz#331 · Kaden#328 · Sutton#332 · Finley#333 · Aidan#326 · Dariel#326 · Orion#334
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Josue? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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