Josua
Josua was last recorded in 2022, when 5 babies were given it; 773 Americans have been recorded with it between 1971 and 2022 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Josua by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Josua mean?
Wiktionary, German section
Josua is “a male given name originating from the Bible, of rare usage”
Meaning: Wiktionary, German section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Josua?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #13,241, in 2022; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
50 babies in 1987, the peak
Josua peaked in 1987, when 50 boys were given it, #1,447 among boys’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 5 | #13,241 | 2.9 |
| 2020 | 8 | #9,109 | 4.6 |
| 2017 | 5 | #13,184 | 2.7 |
| 2016 | 5 | #13,162 | 2.6 |
| 2014 | 5 | #13,006 | 2.6 |
| 2013 | 5 | #13,042 | 2.6 |
| 2010 | 7 | #10,183 | 3.6 |
| 2009 | 11 | #7,447 | 5.5 |
| 2008 | 5 | #13,524 | 2.5 |
| 2007 | 13 | #6,437 | 6.3 |
Every recorded year (46)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | 11 | #7,162 | 5.4 |
| 2005 | 13 | #6,033 | 6.5 |
| 2004 | 21 | #4,183 | 10.6 |
| 2003 | 16 | #4,922 | 8.1 |
| 2002 | 7 | #8,895 | 3.6 |
| 2001 | 17 | #4,581 | 8.7 |
| 2000 | 15 | #4,904 | 7.6 |
| 1999 | 11 | #5,838 | 5.7 |
| 1998 | 15 | #4,514 | 7.8 |
| 1997 | 11 | #5,456 | 5.8 |
| 1996 | 13 | #4,733 | 6.9 |
| 1995 | 16 | #3,949 | 8.4 |
| 1994 | 20 | #3,390 | 10.4 |
| 1993 | 17 | #3,732 | 8.7 |
| 1992 | 18 | #3,525 | 9.0 |
| 1991 | 26 | #2,636 | 12.9 |
| 1990 | 21 | #3,004 | 10.2 |
| 1989 | 22 | #2,835 | 11.0 |
| 1988 | 42 | #1,684 | 21.9 |
| 1987 | 50 | #1,447 | 26.8 |
| 1986 | 49 | #1,423 | 26.6 |
| 1985 | 48 | #1,422 | 26.0 |
| 1984 | 23 | #2,261 | 12.7 |
| 1983 | 33 | #1,729 | 18.4 |
| 1982 | 19 | #2,555 | 10.5 |
| 1981 | 29 | #1,923 | 16.2 |
| 1980 | 20 | #2,483 | 11.2 |
| 1979 | 21 | #2,339 | 12.2 |
| 1978 | 13 | #3,142 | 7.9 |
| 1977 | 6 | #5,469 | 3.7 |
| 1976 | 10 | #3,600 | 6.4 |
| 1975 | 15 | #2,696 | 9.6 |
| 1974 | 11 | #3,226 | 7.0 |
| 1973 | 10 | #3,321 | 6.4 |
| 1972 | 5 | #5,346 | 3.1 |
| 1971 | 10 | #3,254 | 5.7 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Josua a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Josua has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 46 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Josua: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Josua, and how old are they?
An estimated 735 Americans named Josua and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (95% of everyone recorded); the median is 38 years old and half are between 28 and 43. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 1,380 people named Josua (14 women and girls, 1,366 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 735 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.9 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 806,515 babies since 1880, Josua is the fourth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 none of their 10,243 babies recorded by SSA was a Josua (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 Josua
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 Josua and names like it
- Compare Josua and JoseBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sJosua peaked in 1987.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Josua since 1910.
- The top names of 1987The year the most babies were named Josua.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Josua alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with JMost given first.