Joshua
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "Yahweh is salvation".
Name Census estimates that about 1,203,779 living Americans carry the first name Joshua. It sits at #57 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Joshua today is around 33 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Joshua births was 1989 (44,307 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Andrew (1,151,621).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Joshua. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Joshua with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Joshua is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 4,953 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
1.2M
~ 1 in 285 Americans
Peak year
1989
44,307 babies that year
Average age
33
years old
2024 SSA rank
#57
Tracked since 1880
Census
Joshua in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 939,718 people with the first name Joshua, which placed it at #30 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
#30
National first-name rank
People counted
940K
939,718 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
311.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
68.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Joshua
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Joshua is White at 68.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.3%) and Black (9.1%). 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 Joshua 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 Joshua at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White68.4% · 642,325
- Hispanic or Latino14.3% · 134,350
- Black or African American9.1% · 85,627
- Two or more races4.6% · 43,383
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.9% · 27,387
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 6,646
Gender
Gender distribution for Joshua
Out of the 1,249,012 babies given the name Joshua since 1880, 99.6% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Joshua as a male name
- Ranked #57 in 2024
- 5,244 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1989 (44,099 births)
Joshua as a female name
- Ranked #11,545 in 2024
- 8 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1986 (307 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Joshua appears almost entirely male. Of the 939,718 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Joshua: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Joshua from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 399,091 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Joshua 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 Joshua during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Joshuas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Joshua, while Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 24,386 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Joshua
The name Joshua originated from the Hebrew language and culture, with roots dating back to ancient times. It is derived from the Hebrew name "Yehoshua," which means "Yahweh is salvation" or "Yahweh is deliverance." The name's earliest known origins can be traced back to the biblical figure Joshua, who succeeded Moses as the leader of the Israelites and played a pivotal role in the conquest of Canaan, as recorded in the Old Testament.
Joshua is a prominent name in the Bible and appears numerous times throughout the Old Testament. The Book of Joshua, one of the historical books of the Hebrew Bible, is named after the biblical figure and chronicles his life and leadership. The name also appears in other biblical texts, such as the Book of Numbers and the Book of Deuteronomy, further solidifying its significance in Judeo-Christian traditions.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Joshua can be found in the biblical account of the Israelite leader himself, who lived in the late 13th or early 12th century BCE. Throughout history, many notable individuals have borne the name Joshua, including Joshua the High Priest, who lived in the 6th century BCE and played a crucial role in the rebuilding of the Second Temple in Jerusalem.
In later centuries, several individuals named Joshua gained prominence, such as Joshua ben Hananiah, a Jewish scholar and leader who lived in the 1st century CE and was instrumental in the development of the Mishnah. Another notable figure was Joshua ben Levi, a renowned Jewish rabbi and scholar who lived in the 3rd century CE and is known for his contribution to the Talmud.
During the Renaissance period, the name Joshua gained popularity in Europe, particularly among Protestant communities. One notable figure from this time was Joshua Barnes (1654-1712), an English scholar and writer who wrote extensively on ancient history and literature.
In more modern times, several influential individuals have borne the name Joshua, such as Joshua Lederberg (1925-2008), an American molecular biologist who received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1958 for his work on bacterial genetics. Another notable figure was Joshua Nkomo (1917-1999), a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who played a crucial role in the struggle for independence from colonial rule.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Joshua
People
Joshua + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Joshua 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
Joshua: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Joshua?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,203,779 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Joshua 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 285 US residents.
Is Joshua a common name?
We classify Joshua as "Very Common". It ranks above 100% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,249,012 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Joshua most popular?
The single biggest year for Joshua was 1989, when 44,307 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Joshua is about 33 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Joshua in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 939,718 people with the name Joshua, or 311.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #30 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 Joshua 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 Joshua?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Joshua appears almost entirely male. Of the 939,718 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Joshua?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Joshua is White at 68.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.3%) and Black (9.1%). 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 Joshua most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Joshua in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.4% (642,325 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 Joshua in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Joshua a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Joshua 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 Joshua still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Joshua 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 Joshua 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 Joshua?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.