Josia
Josia was last recorded in 2023, when 5 babies were given it; 149 Americans have been recorded with it between 1994 and 2023 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Josia by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Josia?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #13,130, in 2023; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
13 babies in 2008, the peak
Josia peaked in 2008, when 13 boys were given it, #6,575 among boys’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 5 | #13,130 | 2.9 |
| 2022 | 5 | #13,239 | 2.9 |
| 2019 | 7 | #10,249 | 3.9 |
| 2017 | 7 | #10,195 | 3.8 |
| 2016 | 6 | #11,385 | 3.2 |
| 2015 | 5 | #12,994 | 2.6 |
| 2012 | 5 | #13,178 | 2.6 |
| 2011 | 9 | #8,402 | 4.7 |
| 2010 | 6 | #11,423 | 3.1 |
| 2009 | 8 | #9,407 | 4.0 |
Every recorded year (21)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 13 | #6,575 | 6.4 |
| 2007 | 9 | #8,541 | 4.3 |
| 2006 | 10 | #7,701 | 4.9 |
| 2005 | 10 | #7,379 | 5.0 |
| 2003 | 7 | #9,132 | 3.5 |
| 2002 | 5 | #11,542 | 2.6 |
| 2001 | 6 | #9,882 | 3.1 |
| 2000 | 5 | #11,241 | 2.5 |
| 1999 | 5 | #10,717 | 2.6 |
| 1996 | 6 | #8,426 | 3.2 |
| 1994 | 5 | #9,532 | 2.6 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Josia a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 149 Americans recorded as Josia, 3% are girls and 97% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Josia: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Josia, and how old are they?
An estimated 147 Americans named Josia and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 18 years old and half are between 14 and 23. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 591 people named Josia (115 women and girls, 476 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 138 born in the U.S. The Census count is 4.3 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Josia rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
How common is the spelling Josia?
Josia is a less common spelling of Josiah: SSA has recorded 149 Josia and 149,420 Josiah since 1880.
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 806,842 babies since 1880, Josia is the eighth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 none of their 10,290 babies recorded by SSA was a Josia (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Josia
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Josia and names like it
- Compare Josia and JosiahBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sJosia peaked in 2008.
- The top names of 2008The year the most babies were named Josia.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Josia alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with JMost given first.