Yoshua
A masculine given name derived from Hebrew meaning "Yahweh is salvation".
Name Census estimates that about 558 living Americans carry the first name Yoshua. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Yoshua today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yoshua births was 2022 (31 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yoshua. 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.
People living today
558
~ 1 in 614,255 Americans
Peak year
2022
31 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,676
Tracked since 1984
Popularity
Yoshua: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yoshua from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 186 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Yoshua remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yoshua 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 Yoshua during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Yoshuas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Yoshua, while New York, Florida, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 18 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Yoshua
The name Yoshua is derived from the Hebrew name Yehoshua, which means "Yahweh is salvation" or "Yahweh is deliverance." The name has its origins in the ancient Israelite culture and can be traced back to the biblical figure Joshua, who was a prominent figure in the Old Testament.
The earliest recorded mention of the name Yoshua is in the Book of Exodus, where Joshua is described as the successor of Moses and the leader who led the Israelites into the Promised Land. The name is also mentioned in various other books of the Old Testament, including the Book of Numbers and the Book of Joshua.
One of the earliest and most famous individuals with the name Yoshua was Joshua, the son of Nun, who lived in the 13th century BCE. He was a military leader and a prophet who played a crucial role in the conquest of Canaan and the establishment of the Israelite tribes in the Promised Land.
In the 1st century CE, there was a prominent Jewish figure named Yoshua ben Perachyah, who was a Tanna (a scholar of the Mishnah) and a leading figure in the Sanhedrin, the supreme Jewish council of the time.
During the Renaissance period, there was a Spanish painter named Yoshua Reynolds (1549-1615), who was known for his religious paintings and murals depicting biblical scenes.
In the 19th century, Yoshua Chamberlain (1828-1914) was an American military officer who served as a major general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He played a significant role in several major battles, including the Battle of Gettysburg.
Another notable figure with the name Yoshua was Yoshua Lederberg (1925-2008), an American molecular biologist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1958 for his work on bacterial genetics and the discovery of bacterial conjugation.
People
Yoshua + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yoshua as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with Y
Other first names starting with Y with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Yoshua: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yoshua?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 558 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yoshua 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 614,255 US residents.
Is Yoshua a common name?
We classify Yoshua as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 565 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yoshua most popular?
The single biggest year for Yoshua was 2022, when 31 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yoshua is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Yoshua a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Yoshua 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.
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.