Baby name

Joshua

Boy

Origin of the name

Joshua comes from the Hebrew Yehoshua, “God is salvation,” the same name as Jesus. In the Bible, Joshua succeeds Moses and leads the Israelites into the Promised Land.

Short-lived name

Joshua peaked in 1989, when 1 baby in 87 was given the name. The decline was steep: births are now 88% below the peak. Its rank in 2025: No. 66. 32% of all babies named Joshua since 1880 were born in the 1980s.

1,248,929births since 1880

1980sgeneration

No. 4rank at its peak, in 1989

Where babies named Joshua are born

1989

Year shown on the map

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The darker the blue, the more common Joshua is in the state, compared with its births. White: no births published that year.

Where it is most popular

Compared with the national average, Joshua is most common in Alaska (1.9 times), Nevada (1.7) and Wyoming (1.5), taking into account all births in each state since 1910.

One letter apart

Joshuah 2,873
Jeshua 2,623
Jashua 1,710
Joshue 1,118

Names from the same era

Anthony · Benjamin · Andrew · Jonathan · Justin · Aaron

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