Josiah is a male first name. In very rare cases it is also used for girls.
The first name Josiah is one of the top 100 most popular boys names in the US – currently at #54 in our SmartGenius ranking. Over 1,000 babies each year are named Josiah, accounting for approximately 0.40 % of all newborn boys. In the entire USA, approximately 129,012 people – children, adults and seniors – currently bear the name Josiah. That is 0.04 % of all living Americans.
The name Josiah is of Hebrew origin, and it means ‘God supports’ or ‘God will heal.’ It is derived from the Hebrew elements ‘yhwh’ (God) and ‘yasha’ (to support or to save), and is often associated with God’s guidance and protection, and a sense of purpose or mission.
Did you know… that Josiah was the 16th king of Judah (c. 640–609 BCE) who, according to the Hebrew Bible, instituted major religious reforms by removing official worship of gods other than Yahweh.
Josiah Henson (1789 – 1883)
Henson was born into slavery in Maryland. At about 50 years of age, he escaped and settled in Ontario, Canada. He learned to read, became a leader of a group of fugitive slaves and joined the Canadian military. His autobiography inspired the 1852 novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by Harriet Beecher Stowe.
Josiah Royce (1855 – 1916)
Royce was an important American philosopher of the 19th century. He is known for his ideas of personalism, idealism, and defense of absolutism and is considered the founder of American idealism. As a historian, he focused on the development of the American West.
Josiah Willard Gibbs (1839 – 1903)
He was an American scientist who made significant theoretical contributions to physics, chemistry, and mathematics. In 1863, Gibbs was awarded the first American doctorate in engineering. He defined the "Gibbs free energy" in thermodynamics.
Josiah Wedgwood (1730 – 1795)
Wedgwood was an English potter and entrepreneur, who founded the Wegdwood company, that exists until today. He pioneered many known business and promotion strategies such as money back guarantees, free delivery and “buy one get one free”.
When you hear the name Josiah, you might first think of people. But did you know that there are also places with the name Josiah? Are you also called Josiah? Maybe one day you will visit the places that are named just like you...
are named after people with the first name Josiah, such as the [Josiah[ Bartlett Elementary School in New Hampshire and the Josiah Quincy Upper School in Massachusetts.
you’ll find Josiah’s Bay. The little sand beach is a popular spot for snorkeling and surfing.
there is the historic Josiah Belden house. Born in Connecticut, he became a Mexican citizen in 1844 and San Jose’s first mayor in 1850.
in North Bethesda, Maryland, is called Josiah Henson Parkway. In 1830, Henson escaped slavery and became the leader of a community of fugitive slaves in Canada.
If we dig really deep into our statistics, we find that there are very few boys' names that have been consistently popular for so long that they have been given to newborns in every single year since the beginning of our records in 1880. In fact, there are only 442 boys' names that appear in our statistics in every single year, and Josiah is one of those very special classics. At the same time, Josiah has never been more popular than it is in this century - in 2019 the name even made it to rank #47 of the most popular boys' names, easily landing in the top 100 of our SmartGenius first name statistics.
In years where the graph has no value, the name Josiah was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.
...because: In 2022, 5,773 boys were born and given the name Josiah by their parents. That puts Josiah at #52 on our list of most popular boys' names. It was much less popular in 1964 - only 9 parents chose this name for their newborn son and it ranked 2,356 on the popularity scale of all boys' names.
The name Josiah may not be in the top rankings of the most popular boys’ names, but it is one of the few male given names, along with only 385 others, that can be found in every single state in the U.S. from Alaska to Florida and from California to New York. Of course, the name occurs more frequently in some states than in others – and Josiah is apparently especially popular in New Mexico. Although the name is not one of the top 100 most popular men’s names here either, one in 453 men in New Mexico is called Josiah. In total, that’s 2,045 people who feel addressed when the name Josiah is shouted loudly across New Mexico and who ensure that their name makes it to #121 in our SmartGenius ranking of the most common male names in this nice state. If you asked all people in the entire U.S. for their first name, you would hear Josiah as the answer a total of 129,012 times. This places Josiah at #240 in our SmartGenius statistics for the most popular male names in the whole of the USA. This is true for all currently living people across all states and age groups – the recent popularity of the name Josiah as a baby name is, of course, a bit different, as you can see from the statistics above.
Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter J is the most popular first letter for boys’ names. 10.1% of all common boys’ names in the US start with this letter. The second most common first letter in boys’ names is A.
With six letters, the name Josiah is of average length. In fact, 28% of all common first names in the US consist of exactly six letters. 24% of all first names are shorter, while 48% have seven letters or more. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.
That means that if 10.1% of all boys’ names start with a J, this initial letter occurs nearly three times as often as all other letters on average. And, by the way, of all the boys’ names that begin with the letter J, the name James is the most common.
If your name is Josiah and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...
So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Josiah, you can simply say:
Joker
Orange
Sun
Igloo
Apple
Hat
Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.
Josiah
Josiah
Just use American Sign Language!
These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.
J
O
S
I
A
H
In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.
J
O
S
I
A
H
In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Josiah sounds like this:
