Josea
A feminine name of unknown origin and potential biblical roots.
Name Census estimates that about 7 living Americans carry the first name Josea. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Josea today is around 34 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Josea births was 1991 (7 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Josea. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Josea. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
7
~ 1 in 48,964,905 Americans
Peak year
1991
7 babies that year
Average age
34
years old
1991 SSA rank
#6,889
Tracked since 1991
Census
Josea in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 495 people with the first name Josea, which placed it at #20,757 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#20,757
National first-name rank
People counted
495
495 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
76.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Josea
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Josea is Hispanic at 76.4%. The next largest groups are Black (11.3%) and White (8.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Josea described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Josea at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino76.4% · 378
- Black or African American11.3% · 56
- White8.1% · 40
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.8% · 9
- Two or more races1.4% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 5
Popularity
Josea: popularity over time
Babies born per year
Decades
Josea by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Josea during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990s | 7 | 0 | 7 |
Origin
Meaning and history of Josea
The name Josea is a variant of the Hebrew name Joseph, which has its origins in the biblical story of Joseph, son of Jacob and Rachel. Joseph was one of the twelve tribes of Israel and is a prominent figure in the Book of Genesis.
The name Joseph comes from the Hebrew word "yoseph," which means "he will add" or "he will increase." This name was likely chosen to reflect the desire for the child to grow and prosper. The variant spelling Josea likely emerged as the name traveled across different regions and languages over time.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Josea can be found in the Vulgate, a 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. In this text, the name is spelled "Iosea" in reference to the biblical Joseph.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Josea. One of the earliest was Josea, a 7th-century bishop of Merida in Spain. Another notable figure was Josea de Huerta, a 16th-century Spanish composer and theorist known for his work on the vihuela, a Renaissance guitar-like instrument.
In the 17th century, Josea de Lossada y Ribera was a Spanish nobleman and military officer who played a role in the Portuguese Restoration War. Around the same time, Josea Contreras was a Spanish painter known for his religious works and portraits.
A more recent figure with the name Josea was Josea Rizal, a 19th-century Filipino polymath, novelist, poet, and revolutionary. Born in 1861, he is regarded as a national hero in the Philippines for his pivotal role in the Philippine Revolution against Spanish colonial rule.
While the name Josea is not as common as its root name Joseph, it has appeared throughout history in various cultures and contexts, reflecting the enduring influence of the biblical figure and the adaptability of names across different languages and regions.
People
Josea + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Josea as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with J
Other first names starting with J with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Josea: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Josea?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 7 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Josea going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 48,964,905 US residents.
Is Josea a common name?
We classify Josea as "Very Rare". It ranks above 23.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 7 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Josea most popular?
The single biggest year for Josea was 1991, when 7 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Josea is about 34 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Josea in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 495 people with the name Josea, or 0.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #20,757 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Josea in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Josea?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Josea leans strongly male. 440 people counted with this name were male (88.7%), compared with 56 female bearers (11.3%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Josea?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Josea is Hispanic at 76.4%. The next largest groups are Black (11.3%) and White (8.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Josea most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Josea in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.4% (378 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Josea in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Josea a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Josea in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Josea still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Josea in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Josea can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many Americans are named Josea?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.