Josias
Josias was given to 247 boys in 2025, #950 among boys’ names; 3,517 Americans have been recorded with it since 1975 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 3,470 Americans named Josias and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 10 years old and half are between 5 and 18.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Josias by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Josias mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Josias is “a male given name from Hebrew, the New Testament Greek form of Josiah.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Josias?
#950 among boys’ names, 2025
Josias rose from #1,236 in 2015 to #950 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.08 to 0.14 per 1,000.
247 babies in 2025, the peak
Josias peaked in 2025, when 247 boys were given it, #950 among boys’ names. In 2024 it went to 214 boys.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 247 | #950 | 0.14 |
| 2024 | 214 | #1,039 | 0.12 |
| 2023 | 193 | #1,103 | 0.11 |
| 2022 | 201 | #1,089 | 0.12 |
| 2021 | 176 | #1,145 | 0.10 |
| 2020 | 199 | #1,031 | 0.12 |
| 2019 | 139 | #1,316 | 0.08 |
| 2018 | 123 | #1,426 | 0.07 |
| 2017 | 137 | #1,317 | 0.07 |
| 2016 | 136 | #1,321 | 0.07 |
Every recorded year (47)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 148 | #1,236 | 0.08 |
| 2014 | 147 | #1,238 | 0.08 |
| 2013 | 114 | #1,451 | 0.06 |
| 2012 | 107 | #1,508 | 0.06 |
| 2011 | 98 | #1,583 | 0.05 |
| 2010 | 96 | #1,631 | 0.05 |
| 2009 | 110 | #1,514 | 0.06 |
| 2008 | 78 | #1,866 | 0.04 |
| 2007 | 91 | #1,678 | 0.04 |
| 2006 | 73 | #1,865 | 0.04 |
| 2005 | 51 | #2,313 | 0.03 |
| 2004 | 59 | #2,035 | 0.03 |
| 2003 | 62 | #1,892 | 0.03 |
| 2002 | 55 | #2,008 | 0.03 |
| 2001 | 51 | #2,071 | 0.03 |
| 2000 | 38 | #2,499 | 0.02 |
| 1999 | 40 | #2,281 | 0.02 |
| 1998 | 46 | #2,051 | 0.02 |
| 1997 | 29 | #2,710 | 0.02 |
| 1996 | 33 | #2,398 | 0.02 |
| 1995 | 26 | #2,801 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 30 | #2,529 | 0.02 |
| 1993 | 23 | #2,977 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 16 | #3,830 | 0.01 |
| 1991 | 18 | #3,391 | 0.01 |
| 1990 | 14 | #4,074 | 0.01 |
| 1989 | 15 | #3,713 | 0.01 |
| 1988 | 14 | #3,605 | 0.01 |
| 1987 | 9 | #4,737 | under 0.01 |
| 1986 | 5 | #7,247 | under 0.01 |
| 1985 | 6 | #6,147 | under 0.01 |
| 1983 | 15 | #2,997 | 0.01 |
| 1982 | 11 | #3,806 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 7 | #5,194 | under 0.01 |
| 1980 | 7 | #5,213 | under 0.01 |
| 1979 | 5 | #6,521 | under 0.01 |
| 1975 | 5 | #5,879 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Josias a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Josias has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 47 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Josias: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Josias, and how old are they?
3,470 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 3,517 Americans ever recorded as Josias. The median Josias alive today is 10 years old; half are between 5 and 18.
The 2020 Census counted 2,523 people named Josias (8 women and girls, 2,515 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,310 born in the U.S. The Census count is 9% above that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 16 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 231 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,070 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,160 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
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).
Where are babies named Josias born?
The states with the most babies named Josias are Texas, California and Florida, with 47% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 46 | #654 | 1.4× |
| California | 28 | #852 | 1.2× |
| Florida | 23 | #692 | 1.3× |
| New York | 15 | #896 | 0.8× |
| New Jersey | 15 | #503 | 0.7× |
| North Carolina | 11 | #802 | 1.1× |
| Virginia | 9 | #763 | 0.7× |
| Georgia | 7 | #1,155 | 0.6× |
| Maryland | 7 | #657 | 0.8× |
| Pennsylvania | 7 | #1,047 | 0.3× |
Where Josias is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Josias is most over-represented in Texas: since 1975 it was given 1.4 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Josias with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 4 names spelled alike, given to 4,585 babies since 1880, Josias is the most given (77% of them). In 2025 it was given to 247 of their 274 babies (90%), again the most given.
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 Josias
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 Josias and names like it
- Compare Josias and JossBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sJosias peaked in 2025.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Josias since 1910.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Josias.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Josias alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with JMost given first.