Josiah
given name · Latin script
Meaning: Josiah is a classic Hebrew name meaning "Yahweh supports," associated with a biblical king known for his faithfulness
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/d͡ʒoʊzaɪə/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Josiah is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country.
- USUnited States1 in 3.5K(measured from records)
- NGNigeria≈1 in 5.1K
- ZASouth Africa≈1 in 9.3K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- Sources
- 471 (measured from records)
- 1 in 3.5K (inferred from the name graph)
95,175 people, 2020
Highest-authority source
United States
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
Josiah is a classic Hebrew name meaning "Yahweh supports," associated with a biblical king known for his faithfulness. A lesser-known figure named Josiah, also called Hen (meaning "grace"), appears in the book of Zechariah as a respected man who helped facilitate a prophetic act of hope for his people.
Sources 1
- Biblical Names Compiled Database
Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Josiah counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | — | 95,175 | 1 in 3.5K | 95K | Josiah | 471 |
| NG Nigeria | — | ≈42,000 est. | ≈1 in 5.1K | — | Josiah | 80 |
| CN China | — | ≈20,000 est. | ≈1 in 68K | — | Josiah | 10 |
| KE Kenya | — | ≈9,800 est. | ≈1 in 5.5K | — | Josiah | 21 |
| ZA South Africa | — | ≈6,100 est. | ≈1 in 9.3K | — | Josiah | 34 |
| AU Australia | — | ≈1,100 est. | ≈1 in 24K | 7 | Josiah | 124 |
| GY Guyana | #254 | — | — | 288 | Josiah | 5 |
95,175 people counted by Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex, 2020. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Australian national given names (aggregated state BDM); Guyana — Official List of Electors July 2025. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Josiah is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
The name Josiah (Hebrew: Yôʼshîyâh) is generally understood to mean "founded by Yahweh" or "Yahweh supports". The name Hen (Hebrew: ḥēn) means "grace" or "favor".
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
Josiah represents the archetype of a righteous reformer who returns a wayward nation to covenantal faithfulness and obedience to God's law.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
A classic biblical name symbolizing divine healing and support, associated with righteousness and reform.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
In English, A king of Judah.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Yahweh heals or Yahweh supports
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Josiah Bartlettb. 1729USAmerican physician and judge, signatory of the Declaration of Independence (1729–1795)
- Josiah Wedgwoodb. 1730GBEnglish potter and founder of the Wedgwood company (1730–1795)
- Josiah Tattnallb. 1762USAmerican politician (1762-1803)
- Josiah Quincy IIIb. 1772USAmerican politician and president of Harvard University (1772-1864)
- Josiah Warrenb. 1798USAmerican social reformer, philosopher, inventor, musician, and author (1798–1874)
- Josiah Harlanb. 1799USAmerican mercenary and prince (1799–1871)
- Josiah Willard Gibbsb. 1839USAmerican scientist (1839–1903)
- Josiah Conderb. 1852GBBritish architect (1852-1920)
- Josiah Royceb. 1855USAmerican philosopher (1855–1916)
- Josiah McCrackenb. 1874USAmerican football player, athlete and professor of medicine (1874-1962)
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 67 sources across 41 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 95K | #568 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 5.5K | — |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 440 | #568 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 13 | — |
| AU Australia | AU state BDM — consolidated top baby names (NSW + SA + QLD) | 1944 | 8 | — |
| AU Australia | Australian national given names (aggregated state BDM) | 2017 | 7 | — |
| AU Australia | AU state BDM — consolidated top baby names (NSW + SA + QLD) | 2017 | 7 | — |
| AU Australia | SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present) | 2017 | 7 | — |
| AU Australia | Australian national given names (aggregated state BDM) | 2016 | 3 | — |
| AU Australia | SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present) | 2007 | 1 | — |
Reference works 4
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Ethiopian name tokens (GitHub lehagere/ethiopian-names, 40/60 condominium list)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Josiah a male or female name?
- Josiah is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- What does the name Josiah mean, and where does it come from?
- Josiah is a classic Hebrew name meaning "Yahweh supports," associated with a biblical king known for his faithfulness. Recorded by Biblical Names Compiled Database.
- In which country does Josiah have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 95 thousand people named Josiah, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled josiah.
- Where is Josiah most common?
- Josiah is densest in the United States, where the national register counts about 1 in 3.5 thousand people carrying it.
- How do you pronounce Josiah?
- A machine transcription gives /d͡ʒoʊzaɪə/ (IPA) for English.
- What are other forms of the name Josiah?
- In the etymology graph, Josias, Jasiah and Joziah are forms of the same name in other languages.
- How common is the name Josiah?
- In the United States, the national register counted 95,175 people named Josiah in 2020, about 1 in 3.5 thousand residents.
- How common is Josiah compared with other names?
- In Guyana, Josiah is the 254th most common given name of 15,440 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Josiah?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/josiahThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Josiah” — the 254th most common given name in Guyana. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.