Josh

125,623 people in America carry this name — ranked #448 of 923.

A name with a settled sense and a settled sound.

Say it JAHSH

1 syllable · the capitals are the stressed part

Phonetic transcription

JH AA1 SH — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.

  • People counted 125,623 2020 Census
  • Rank #448 Common
  • Per 100,000 41.6 about 1 in 2,638 people

What Josh means and where it comes from

Hebrew in origin, reading literally as “addition”.

Origins are a matter of scholarly argument rather than record, and a name can be traced more than one way. We state one reading and say where it came from.

How often Josh has been given

16,812 babies were given this name since 1880. The busiest year was 1979, with 531 of them.

80 90 00 10 20 30 40 50 60 70s 80 90 00 10 20

Most people carrying it were born in the 1970s. It has been given less often of late.

Counted from Social Security card applications, so it covers births registered in the United States and leaves out names given to fewer than five babies in a year.

Middle names that fit Josh

One syllable, so a longer middle name gives the whole a rhythm.

Better avoided

  • Josh Joseph — same opening
  • Josh Jose — same opening
  • Josh Joshua — same opening

Chosen by sound from the pronouncing dictionary, then ordered by how often the name is given. None of it is a rule — the ear decides.

Boys or girls: who is called Josh?

99.8% men
220 women

As recorded on census returns, not as anyone thinks the name ought to be used.

Where in America Josh is thickest on the ground

In Louisiana the name is given 1.8 times as often as it is across the country.

  • Louisiana ×1.8
  • Montana ×1.7
  • Florida ×1.7
  • Texas ×1.4
  • New York ×1.4

Measured against the state's own share of births since 1960, so a small state can lead a big one. Counted from Social Security card applications.

How to spell Josh

Josh is how 12% of them spell it — 1,065,341 people answer to the sound.

Each spelling is its own census entry — the counts never overlap, so the shares are of the group, not of the country.

Names about as common

The nearest entries above and below by number of people.

The same name elsewhere

  • Joe English
  • Sipp Bav
  • Sepp Swiss|Bav
  • Seph Bav
  • Sefa Swiss
  • Pepe Spanish
  • Pepa Spanish
  • Jozo Ill
  • Joze Portuguese
  • Joza Slov
  • Jose Span.|Port
  • Jeps Lett
  • Seppi Swiss
  • Pepsa Ill

Forms of one name traced to the same root. Spellings are as the glossary printed them, so some look older than the versions in use today.

Names with the same rhythm as Josh

Nothing else in the file ends on the same sound — a rare thing, and useful if you want a first name nobody will echo.

Same rhythm — 1 syllables, stress on the first

Matched on phonemes, not spelling, so the lists follow the ear rather than the page.

Try it Adult Height

Open Adult Height on its own page

Where this page gets its numbers

  • Counts, ranks and shares: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census tabulations of first and last names occurring 100 or more times. Percentages, bands and groupings are our own arithmetic — the conclusions are ours, not the Bureau’s.
  • Pronunciation, syllables and rhyme groups: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, Carnegie Mellon University. The plain-English respelling is ours.
  • Origins and the forms a name takes in other languages: Charlotte Yonge, History of Christian Names, 1884 — a public-domain work. Scholarship has moved on since, so read it as one reading of a name, not the last word.

Below a hundred people we publish no figure at all — the same threshold the Census Bureau applies to us. What each source covers
Other names of Hebrew origin