boy's name
Josh
JOSH
- Origin Hebrew
- Gender Boy
- Syllables 1
- Letters 4
- Popularity Uncommon
- Births on record 36,468
Northern Ireland
#185
2024 births
Josh is a boy's name, the short form of Joshua, from a Hebrew name meaning the Lord is salvation. Our records carry it as a registered name in its own right from 1880, long before the nickname culture it is usually credited to.
- Josh is a name of Hebrew origin.
- Peaked in 1979, when 531 babies were given the name.
- It has been falling over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 34,535 babies in the United States is given this name.
- 1 syllable, with the stress on syllable 1.
Josh over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1880s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1880s | 234 |
| 1890s | 209 |
| 1900s | 195 |
| 1910s | 395 |
| 1920s | 439 |
| 1930s | 348 |
| 1940s | 361 |
| 1950s | 596 |
| 1960s | 1,212 |
| 1970s | 4,011 |
| 1980s | 2,818 |
| 1990s | 1,827 |
| 2000s | 2,656 |
| 2010s | 1,419 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 568 |
What Josh means
Josh means the Lord is salvation. The Hebrew name behind it joins a form of the divine name to a verb for rescuing or delivering.
Where Josh comes from
Josh is clipped from Joshua, the English form of the Hebrew Yehoshua — a short form of the divine name joined to the root y-sh-ʿ, to save or deliver. The same Hebrew name passed through Greek as Iesous and into English as Jesus, so Joshua and Jesus are one name arriving twice by different routes, several centuries apart. Josh has a second life as an English verb meaning to tease, first recorded in the mid nineteenth century and of unknown origin; the two are not connected, though the coincidence is old enough that Victorian writers played on it.
Josh in use
Josh ranks 185th in Northern Ireland on 12 births, 194th in Ireland on 25, 223rd in Scotland, 762nd in England and Wales, 1704th in the United States and 2981st in France. It peaked in the United States in 1979, when 531 babies were registered, and is falling in our data. Our records carry it from 1880 across 36,468 lifetime births — evidence that it was registered as a standalone name well before the late twentieth-century fashion for nickname forms.
How popular is Josh?
In 2025, Josh was given to 96 babies in the United States. It is used consistently but remains uncommon.
Where Josh is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
Names that peaked alongside Josh
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Josh also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Josh over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
Josh in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
Sibling names for Josh
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Josh — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Josh
What does the name Josh mean?
The Lord is salvation, from the Hebrew Yehoshua by way of Joshua.
Is Josh a full name?
Our records carry it as a registered name from 1880, so it has a long history as a standalone choice rather than only as a nickname.
Is Josh related to Jesus?
Yes. Joshua and Jesus render the same Hebrew name, one through Hebrew directly and the other through Greek.
How popular is Josh?
185th in Northern Ireland and 194th in Ireland, well ahead of its 1704th position in the United States.
Is Josh a girl's or a boy's name?
Josh is given almost entirely to boys in birth records.
How many syllables are in Josh?
Josh has 1 syllable.
Is Josh a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Josh currently ranks #185 in the United States. It has been falling over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.