Joshua Brown
There are approximately 5,864 people named Joshua Brown living in the United States today. That makes this name combination rare, occurring at a rate of about 1 in 58,451 Americans.
This estimate combines SSA birth records for the first name Joshua with Census Bureau frequency data for the surname Brown. Below you will find a breakdown of both names, including popularity trends, gender data, and ancestry information.
Expected bearers
5,864
1 in 58,451
Named Joshua
1.2M
Alive today
Named Brown
1.7M
Alive today
US population
343M
Denominator
Estimated living: 1.2M
Rarity: Very Common
Gender: Male
Peak year: 1989
Average age: 33
Estimated bearers: 1.7M
Rarity: Very Common
Census rank: #4
Per 100K: 487.16
Top ancestry: White (58.0%)
First name trend
Joshua: popularity over time
Year-by-year SSA birth registrations for the first name Joshua. The peak year was 1989 with 44,307 births. The average person named Joshua today is 33 years old.
Babies born per year
Ethnicity
Ancestry of the Brown surname
Self-reported race and ethnicity breakdown for people with the surname Brown, from the 2010 US Census Bureau. The largest group is White at 58.0%.
- White58.0%
- Black or African American35.6%
- Two or more races2.5%
- Hispanic or Latino2.5%
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9%
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5%
Methodology
How we calculated this
The first name Joshua has a living-bearer frequency of 0.3512% of the US population, based on 1,203,779 estimated living Americans carrying this first name (from SSA birth records going back to 1880, adjusted for mortality using CDC life tables).
The surname Brown appears at a rate of 487.16 per 100,000 residents in the 2010 Census Bureau surname file, which translates to a frequency of 0.4872%.
Multiplying these two independent frequencies against the current US population of 342,754,338 gives an expected count of approximately 5,864 people with the full name Joshua Brown. This assumes statistical independence between first and last names, which is a simplification but produces reasonable estimates for most combinations.
Related
Other people named Joshua
Related
Other people with the surname Brown
FAQ
Joshua Brown: questions and answers
How many people are named Joshua Brown?
We estimate approximately 5,864 people in the United States share the full name Joshua Brown. That works out to about 1 in 58,451 Americans. This is calculated by combining the first-name frequency (0.3512%) with the surname frequency (487.16 per 100K) against the current US population.
How rare is the name Joshua Brown?
We classify Joshua Brown as "Rare". About 1 in 58,451 Americans share this exact first and last name combination.
Is Joshua a male or female name?
Joshua is predominantly male. Out of 1,249,012 total SSA registrations, 99.6% were male and 0.4% were female. See the full Joshua profile for detailed gender data.
Where does this data come from?
First-name data comes from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files (1880 to 2024). Surname data comes from the 2010 US Census Bureau decennial surname tables. Living-bearer estimates use CDC actuarial life tables to adjust for mortality. Read the full methodology.