Joshwa
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "YHWH is salvation".
Name Census estimates that about 436 living Americans carry the first name Joshwa. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Joshwa today is around 31 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Joshwa births was 2004 (25 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Joshwa. 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 Joshwa with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
436
~ 1 in 786,134 Americans
Peak year
2004
25 babies that year
Average age
31
years old
2017 SSA rank
#13,183
Tracked since 1975
Census
Joshwa in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 355 people with the first name Joshwa, which placed it at #26,287 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
#26,287
National first-name rank
People counted
355
355 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
43.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Joshwa
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Joshwa is White at 43.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (28.2%) and Black (18.6%). 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 Joshwa 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 Joshwa at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White43.1% · 153
- Hispanic or Latino28.2% · 100
- Black or African American18.6% · 66
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.6% · 20
- Two or more races3.9% · 14
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 2
Popularity
Joshwa: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Joshwa from the 1970s through to the 2010s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 179 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Joshwa 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 Joshwa during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Joshwas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Joshwa
The name Joshwa is a variant spelling of the Hebrew name Joshua, which has its roots in the ancient Israelite culture dating back to the 2nd millennium BCE. The name is derived from the Hebrew words "yeho" meaning "Yahweh" (the name of the Jewish God) and "shua" meaning "to save" or "to deliver." Thus, the name Joshwa can be interpreted as "Yahweh is salvation" or "Yahweh delivers."
The name gained significant prominence in the Old Testament of the Bible, where Joshua, the son of Nun, was a central figure who succeeded Moses as the leader of the Israelites and led them into the Promised Land of Canaan. The Book of Joshua, one of the books of the Hebrew Bible, details his life and military conquests.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Joshwa can be found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of ancient Jewish texts dating back to the 3rd century BCE. The name also appears in various other ancient texts and inscriptions from the region.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Joshwa or its variations. One of the earliest was Joshua ben Hananiah, a Jewish sage who lived in the 1st century CE and was a prominent member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish high court.
Another well-known figure was Joshua the Stylite, a Syrian monk and chronicler who lived in the 6th century CE and wrote an important account of the Byzantine-Sassanid wars.
In the 16th century, Joshua Falk ben Alexander HaCohen Katz, a renowned Rabbi and Talmudic scholar, made significant contributions to Jewish law and theology.
Moving to the 18th century, Joshua Reynolds, an English painter and one of the most prominent portraitists of his time, was born in 1723 and left a lasting impact on the art world.
In the 19th century, Joshua Norton, a eccentric San Franciscan who proclaimed himself the "Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico" in 1859, gained notoriety for his colorful life and claims to imperial authority.
These are just a few examples of the many individuals throughout history who have borne the name Joshwa or its variations, reflecting its enduring presence across cultures and time periods.
People
Joshwa + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Joshwa 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
Joshwa: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Joshwa?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 436 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Joshwa 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 786,134 US residents.
Is Joshwa a common name?
We classify Joshwa as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 449 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Joshwa most popular?
The single biggest year for Joshwa was 2004, when 25 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Joshwa is about 31 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Joshwa in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 355 people with the name Joshwa, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #26,287 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 Joshwa 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 Joshwa?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Joshwa appears almost entirely male. Of the 353 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Joshwa?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Joshwa is White at 43.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (28.2%) and Black (18.6%). 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 Joshwa most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Joshwa in the 2020 Census, accounting for 43.1% (153 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 Joshwa in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Joshwa a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Joshwa 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 Joshwa still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Joshwa 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 Joshwa 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 are called Joshwa?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.