Humanverse

Josua

Josua is a boy's name that peaked in 1987, when it was the 1,439th most popular in the United States. It has not appeared in the national data since 2022. About 740 Josuas are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 37.

Popularity, 1880–2025

Births per year, 1880 to 2025 0 13 25 38 50 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

boys named Josua

By the numbers

Total US births
773
Estimated living today
740
Median age today
37
Peak year
1987
Best rank
1,439th
Rank in 2025
unranked
First recorded
1971

How old the living Josuas are

Born with the name each year, and how many of them are alive today, 1880 to 2025 0 13 25 38 50 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

born that year still alive today

Of the 773 babies given the name since 1971, about 740 are alive — 95 in every hundred. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 1988 and half after.

An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.

Notable Josuas

People named Josua with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).

Where Josua is most common

Relative to how many babies each state records, Josua is most concentrated in California (5.6×), Texas (4.7×).

Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.

Names of 1987

The most popular boys’ names the year Josua peaked:

All the names of 1987

Josua elsewhere

CountrySpelling BirthsBest rank
France boys Josua 485 1,204th
Switzerland boys Josua 310 295th
Belgium boys Josua 11 1,110th
France girls Josua 10 4,135th
England and Wales boys Josua 3 4,527th

Counts come from each country's own records and are not comparable with the US figures above, which cover different years and a different definition of a recorded name. Where a country writes the name several ways, the spellings are added together and the most common is shown. A row marked name registrations is counting something else: Portugal ranks each of a child's two given names separately, so a girl registered Maria Leonor is in both the Maria row and the Leonor row, and that figure is not a number of children.

Josua: births by region

RegionCountry Spelling BirthsShare of the region Best rank
German boys Switzerland Josua 298 0.024% 211th
French boys Switzerland Josua 11 0.003% 466th
Romansh boys Switzerland Josua 1 0.027% 11th

Parts of a country counted above, not extra births. The share is what makes the regions comparable: they differ in size by a factor of three hundred.

By canton, Josua is most concentrated in Thurgau, where 0.04% of children were given it – 25 of them.

Josua: rank by region

In 2013, Josua was given 5 times or more in 1 region of Belgium.

Region Spelling Place Children
Wallonia Josua 474 5

Each of these is the top of a list the statistics office cut off somewhere – Belgium below 5 children – and published nothing after. So a region missing here is one where the name fell outside what was published, not one where it went unused. Places are shared where names tie, and the further down a list a place is, the more names can share it.

Josua by city

CityYears BirthsBest rank
Berlin boys 2017–2023 14 413th

One city over a few years, so these are much smaller numbers than the national ones above and not comparable with them.

Josua among the living

How many people each country's register counts under the name, rather than how many were given it in any one year. Each register was read on one date, and they are not the same date.

Country Spelling First forename Any forename
Finland boys Josua 98 189

A count of people on a register – Finland on 4 August 2026 – and not of births, so it cannot be compared with the figures above. Names with very few bearers are withheld, and a dash in the first-forename column means the register would not say rather than that nobody goes by it.

Where Josua lives in Spain

Not a count of births but of people: 209 men called Josua were living in Spain on 1 January 2025, of every age, born in any year. Where they live is not spread evenly.

Men: the provinces where it is densest

Province Spelling People Per thousand Place there
Santa Cruz de Tenerife Josua 23 0.043 1,817
Palmas, Las Josua 17 0.029 2,459
Alicante/Alacant Josua 13 0.013 3,785
Balears, Illes Josua 8 0.013 3,804
Asturias Josua 6 0.012 2,807
Coruña, A Josua 6 0.011 2,896

Listed in 9 of Spain's 52 provinces. In the other 43 it is either held by fewer than 5 people – the point below which the source withholds a name – or it fell past the 5,000 names the source will print for one province. Neither means nobody there is called it. The rate is the source's own, not a share worked out here.

Related names

Josua against another name

Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.

Compare Josua with a name of your own

Try it on yourself

Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.