Joshawa
A fictional name combining Joshua and Yahweh, likely intended to mean "Yahweh is salvation."
Name Census estimates that about 490 living Americans carry the first name Joshawa. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Joshawa today is around 36 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Joshawa births was 1985 (28 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Joshawa. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
490
~ 1 in 699,499 Americans
Peak year
1985
28 babies that year
Average age
36
years old
2011 SSA rank
#10,159
Tracked since 1974
Census
Joshawa in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 364 people with the first name Joshawa, which placed it at #25,851 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#25,851
National first-name rank
People counted
364
364 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
78.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Joshawa
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Joshawa is White at 78.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.4%) and Black (7.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Joshawa described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Joshawa at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White78.0% · 284
- Hispanic or Latino7.4% · 27
- Black or African American7.1% · 26
- Two or more races6.0% · 22
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 5
Popularity
Joshawa: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Joshawa from the 1970s through to the 2010s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 226 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Joshawa by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Joshawa during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Joshawas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Joshawa
The name Joshawa has its origins in the ancient Hebrew language, believed to have emerged around the 2nd millennium BCE. It is a variant spelling of the more familiar name Joshua, which is derived from the Hebrew words "yeho" meaning "Yahweh" and "shua" meaning "to save" or "to deliver." Thus, the name Joshawa can be interpreted as "Yahweh is salvation" or "Yahweh is the deliverer."
Joshawa finds its earliest historical references in the Old Testament of the Bible, where it is the name of one of the central figures, Joshua, who succeeded Moses as the leader of the Israelites and led them into the Promised Land of Canaan. The Book of Joshua in the Bible chronicles the life and exploits of this legendary figure, making the name Joshawa closely linked to the religious and cultural traditions of Judaism and Christianity.
While the spelling Joshawa is less common than Joshua, it has been used throughout history by various individuals and communities. One of the earliest recorded examples is Joshawa ben Nun, a prominent figure in Jewish history, who lived around the 13th century BCE and is believed to have been the same person as the Biblical Joshua.
Another notable individual bearing the name Joshawa was Joshawa ben Gamla, a Jewish scholar and leader who lived in the 1st century CE and is credited with establishing the first organized system of universal education in ancient Israel. His contributions to education and learning have left a lasting impact on Jewish culture and tradition.
In the realm of religion, Joshawa ben Levi was a prominent Jewish Talmudic scholar who lived in the 3rd century CE and is renowned for his teachings and interpretations of Jewish law and tradition. His insights and wisdom have been preserved in the Talmud, a central text of Judaism.
Moving forward in history, Joshawa ben Joseph was a renowned Jewish philosopher and astronomer who lived in the 10th century CE in Spain. He made significant contributions to the field of astronomy and was highly regarded for his scientific achievements during the Golden Age of Jewish culture in Spain.
Another notable figure with the name Joshawa was Joshawa ben Meir, a prominent Jewish scholar and commentator who lived in the 14th century CE in Germany. He authored several important works on Jewish law and philosophy, which continue to be studied and referenced by scholars and students of Judaism to this day.
These are just a few examples of individuals throughout history who have borne the name Joshawa, a name that has maintained its significance and connection to the rich cultural and religious heritage of Judaism and the ancient Hebrew language.
People
Joshawa + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Joshawa as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with J
Other first names starting with J with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Joshawa: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Joshawa?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 490 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Joshawa going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 699,499 US residents.
Is Joshawa a common name?
We classify Joshawa as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 508 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Joshawa most popular?
The single biggest year for Joshawa was 1985, when 28 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Joshawa is about 36 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Joshawa in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 364 people with the name Joshawa, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #25,851 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Joshawa in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Joshawa?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Joshawa appears almost entirely male. Of the 368 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Joshawa?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Joshawa is White at 78.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.4%) and Black (7.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Joshawa most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Joshawa in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.0% (284 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Joshawa in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Joshawa a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Joshawa in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Joshawa still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Joshawa in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Joshawa can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have the name Joshawa?
See how many Americans are named Joshawa on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.