BabyNameScore

Name profile

Joshua

masculine

88First-name usabilityWorkable with minor friction
Evidence coverageHigh

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Hebrew, from the Old Testament name Yehoshua (יְהוֹשֻׁעַ).

Why it works

  • English speakers will almost certainly pronounce it correctly on the first try
  • spelling is short and predictable — rarely needs repeating

What to know

pronunciation varies somewhat by language — see "How it travels" for the specifics

Popularity

Popular — #66 in the latest U.S. ranking.

Meaning and origin

Joshua means "The Lord/Yahweh is salvation" — from Yeho- (a shortened form of the divine name YHWH) plus a form of the Hebrew root יש"ע (y-sh-ʿ), "to save/deliver.".

Joshua has been a mainstay of English-speaking Christian naming practice since Puritan/Reformation-era enthusiasm for Old Testament names, and remains one of the most consistently used biblical boys' names in the US, UK, and other Anglophone countries into the 21st century.

Documented origin: Hebrew, from the Old Testament name Yehoshua (יְהוֹשֻׁעַ).

VerifiedDirectly documented by an independent source, with no competing account on file.

How it travels

English and Turkish are shown by default; German is included when it adds a meaningfully different reading.

EnglishJAHSH-oo-uh — US/UK Englishresearched pronunciation
TurkishEnglish tends to reduce unstressed vowels; Turkish pronounces vowels at full value, so the ending may sound crisper to Turkish speakers than to English speakers.deterministic phonetic analysis
GermanEnglish tends to reduce unstressed vowels; German pronounces vowels at full value, so the ending may sound crisper to German speakers than to English speakers.deterministic phonetic analysis

Spelling stability: high — based on letter-pattern analysis, not a documented linguistic fact.

Also documented

Modern Hebrew (Yehoshua): yeh-ho-SHOO-ah

Spanish/French: Josué — hoh-SWEH

Popularity without panic

Popular — #66 in the latest U.S. ranking.

Well-liked and easy to place — most people will know it.

Full-name check

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Real-world considerations

  • Popular — #66 in the latest U.S. ranking.
  • Spelling note: Joshua vs. Josuha (letter transposition).
  • The compound theophoric structure (divine-name element + "salvation" root) is well established by Hebrew philology and is not seriously disputed among sources consulted; nuance exists only in exact English phrasing ("the Lord is salvation" vs. "the Lord saves").
Explore alternatives
Jesus

Documented as a related name or variant form.

Yeshua

Documented as a related name or variant form.

Hoshea

Documented as a related name or variant form.