Humanverse

Joshua vs Jossue

American parents have registered 1,253,882 Joshuas since 1880, against 687 Jossues. Joshua is still ahead, with 4,773 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Joshua against Jossue, 1880 to 2025 0 12.5k 25k 37.5k 50k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Joshua Jossue

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Joshua has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2021, when Joshua had 5,531 and Jossue had 11.

Side by side

  Joshua Jossue
Total US births 1,253,882687
Most in one year 44,30830
Babies in 2025 4,7735
Estimated living today 1.2 million670
Median age today 3323
Peak year 19892006
Best rank 4th boys3,451st boys
Rank in 2025 66th12,008th
First recorded 18801981
Girls / boys 4,953 / 1,248,9290 / 687

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Joshuas alive today are over 33; half the Jossues are over 23. That is 10 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Joshua and Jossue.