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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Yoshua with official rankings and popularity over time.
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
Census
Yoshua in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 469 people with the first name Yoshua, which placed it at #21,580 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
#21,580
National first-name rank
People counted
469
469 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
56.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yoshua
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yoshua is Hispanic at 56.1%. The next largest groups are Black (22.2%) and White (13.2%). 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 Yoshua 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 Yoshua at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino56.1% · 263
- Black or African American22.2% · 104
- White13.2% · 62
- Two or more races5.3% · 25
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.8% · 13
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 2
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.
How common was Yoshua in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 469 people with the name Yoshua, or 0.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,580 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 Yoshua 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 Yoshua?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Yoshua leans strongly male. 453 people counted with this name were male (97.2%), compared with 13 female bearers (2.8%). 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 Yoshua?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yoshua is Hispanic at 56.1%. The next largest groups are Black (22.2%) and White (13.2%). 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 Yoshua most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Yoshua in the 2020 Census, accounting for 56.1% (263 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 Yoshua in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
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.
Is Yoshua still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yoshua 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 Yoshua 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 Yoshua?
You can see how many people share the name Yoshua on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.