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Boy · Hebrew
Joshua
Say it: JOSH-oo-uh
Meaning
Hebrew Yehoshua, 'YHWH is salvation'; the same name as Jesus.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
A Puritan name that became one of the most popular in the English-speaking world in the 1980s and 1990s.
Its wave through time
Fading since the 1980s
In the United States
- 1,227,713 babies given this name since 1880
- At its height in 1985, about 1 in 44 boys
- 5,933 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- The Biblical WorldAbout 1200 BC to AD 100
- The Colonial Americas1500 to 1800
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
The family of the name
| French | Josué |
|---|---|
| Spanish | Josué |
| Italian | Giosuè |
| Portuguese | Josué |
| German | Josua |
| Polish | Jozue |
| Hebrew | Yehoshua |
Famous bearers
- Joshua, successor of Moses
- Joshua Reynolds, English painter
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- The Hebrew Bible and the New Testament
- Puritan church and town records of England and New England
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.