Joshuah
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "Yahweh is salvation".
Name Census estimates that about 2,782 living Americans carry the first name Joshuah. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Joshuah today is around 30 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Joshuah births was 1989 (106 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Joshuah. 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 Joshuah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.8K
~ 1 in 123,204 Americans
Peak year
1989
106 babies that year
Average age
30
years old
2024 SSA rank
#10,325
Tracked since 1969
Census
Joshuah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,068 people with the first name Joshuah, which placed it at #7,397 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
#7,397
National first-name rank
People counted
2.1K
2,068 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
63.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Joshuah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Joshuah is White at 63.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (15.9%) and Black (11.9%). 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 Joshuah 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 Joshuah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White63.3% · 1,310
- Hispanic or Latino15.9% · 329
- Black or African American11.9% · 246
- Two or more races6.3% · 131
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.7% · 35
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 17
Popularity
Joshuah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Joshuah from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 782 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Joshuah 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 Joshuah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Joshuahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 19 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Joshuah, while Washington, Virginia, New Jersey recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 47 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Joshuah
The name Joshuah is a variant spelling of the Hebrew name Joshua, which has its origins in the ancient Israelite culture of the Middle East. The name is derived from the Hebrew words "yeho" meaning "Yahweh" (referring to God) and "shua" meaning "to save" or "to deliver." Together, the name Joshua can be translated as "Yahweh is salvation" or "the Lord is my salvation."
One of the earliest and most significant references to the name Joshua comes from the Hebrew Bible, where it is the name of the successor to Moses and the leader who led the Israelites into the Promised Land of Canaan. The Book of Joshua in the Old Testament chronicles his life and military campaigns, cementing his place as a prominent figure in Jewish history and religious tradition.
The name Joshua gained widespread recognition and popularity among early Christian communities as well, particularly with the translation of the Bible into Greek, where the name was rendered as "Iēsous." This Greek form of the name later evolved into the Latin "Iesus," which eventually became the English "Jesus," referring to the central figure of Christianity.
Throughout history, the name Joshua has been borne by several notable individuals. One of the earliest was Joshua the High Priest, who lived in the 5th century BCE and played a pivotal role in the rebuilding of the Second Temple in Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile.
Another famous bearer of the name was Joshua ben Hananiah, a prominent Jewish scholar and sage who lived in the 1st century CE and was instrumental in shaping the development of Rabbinic Judaism.
In more recent times, Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) was a renowned English painter who became the first president of the Royal Academy of Arts in London. His portraits of notable figures from the 18th century are considered among the finest examples of English portraiture.
Joshua Chamberlain (1828-1914) was an American college professor who became a highly respected Union officer during the American Civil War. His pivotal defense of Little Round Top during the Battle of Gettysburg is credited with helping secure the Union victory in that crucial engagement.
Finally, Joshua Lederberg (1925-2008) was an American molecular biologist who made significant contributions to the field of genetics and won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1958 for his work on bacterial genetics and the discovery of bacterial conjugation.
People
Joshuah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Joshuah 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
Joshuah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Joshuah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,782 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Joshuah 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 123,204 US residents.
Is Joshuah a common name?
We classify Joshuah as "Rare". It ranks above 94.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,862 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Joshuah most popular?
The single biggest year for Joshuah was 1989, when 106 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Joshuah is about 30 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Joshuah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,068 people with the name Joshuah, or 0.68 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,397 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 Joshuah 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 Joshuah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Joshuah appears almost entirely male. Of the 2,065 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 Joshuah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Joshuah is White at 63.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (15.9%) and Black (11.9%). 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 Joshuah most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Joshuah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 63.3% (1,310 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 Joshuah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Joshuah a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Joshuah 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 Joshuah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Joshuah 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 Joshuah 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 people have Joshuah as a first name?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.