How popular is the baby name Joshua in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Joshua.

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Popularity of the baby name Joshua


Posts that mention the name Joshua

Popular baby names in Queensland (Australia), 2013

Queensland’s top baby names of 2013 were announced a few weeks ago.

According to data from the Queensland Government, the most popular baby names last year were Charlotte and Oliver.

Here are Queensland’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2013:

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Charlotte
2. Ruby
3. Mia
4. Emily
5. Amelia
6. Sophie
7. Olivia
8. Ava
9. Isabella
10. Ella		1. Oliver
2. William
3. Jack
4. Cooper
5. Noah
6. Ethan
7. Thomas
8. Harrison
9. Lachlan
10. Joshua

The 2012 list was topped by Ruby and Jack.

Source: Oliver and Charlotte are Queensland’s number one names

Popular baby names in Victoria (Australia), 2013

Victoria’s top baby names of 2013 were announced a few days ago.

According to data from the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, the Australian state’s most popular baby names last year were Charlotte and William.

Here are Vic’s top 20 girl names and top 20 boy names of 2013:

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Charlotte
2. Ava
3. Olivia
4. Mia
5. Emily
6. Sophie
7. Isabella
8. Chloe
9. Ruby
10. Amelia
11. Grace
12. Ella
13. Zoe
14. Matilda
15. Sienna
16. Lily
17. Isla
18. Emma
19. Zara
20. Lucy		1. William
2. Jack
3. Oliver
4. Ethan
5. Thomas
6. James
7. Noah
8. Joshua
9. Lucas
10. Mason
11. Lachlan
12. Xavier
13. Liam
14. Alexander
15. Max
16. Samuel
17. Benjamin
18. Cooper
19. Henry
20. Oscar

The 75,148 babies born in Victoria last year shared a total of 6,932 girl names and 5,965 boy names. Of these, 47 girl names and 67 boy names were registered 100 times or more.

My source also noted that 363 baby boys got the name Jackson, or a variant: Jackson (191 baby boys), Jaxon (140), Jaxson (32).

Here’s the 2012 list, if you’d like to compare. (Olivia and Jack are the former #1 names.)

Source: Charlotte and William top picks for Victorian babies in 2013

Popular baby names in New Zealand, 2013

Flag of New Zealand
Flag of New Zealand

New Zealand’s top baby names of 2013 were announced last week.

According to NZ’s Department of Internal Affairs, the country’s most popular names of 2013 were Charlotte and Oliver.

Here are the top 25 girl names and top 25 boy names of 2013:

Girl Names

  1. Charlotte
  2. Emily
  3. Ruby
  4. Sophie
  5. Olivia
  6. Isla
  7. Amelia
  8. Ava
  9. Isabella
  10. Ella
  11. Chloe
  12. Grace
  13. Mia
  14. Lily
  15. Emma
  16. Sophia
  17. Lucy
  18. Mila
  19. Harper
  20. Zoe
  21. Georgia
  22. Paige
  23. Hannah
  24. Aria
  25. Jessica

Boy Names

  1. Oliver
  2. Jack
  3. James
  4. William
  5. Mason
  6. Liam
  7. Samuel
  8. Lucas
  9. Noah
  10. Thomas
  11. Hunter
  12. Ethan
  13. Jacob
  14. Benjamin
  15. Daniel
  16. Max
  17. Joshua
  18. Ryan
  19. Cooper
  20. Blake
  21. Lachlan
  22. Charlie
  23. Levi
  24. Leo
  25. Elijah

Girl names on the rise include Isla, Mila, Aria, Eden (30th), Willow (33rd) and Pippa (44th).

Boy names on the rise include Hunter and Elijah.

Another boy name — Braxton — debuted at #28 on the NZ top 100 in 2012 and was still going strong in 2013 at 29th. The explanation for Braxton’s sudden popularity could be the Australian soap opera Home and Away, which is popular in NZ. In 2011, the show introduced a trio of brothers named Darryl “Brax” Braxton, Heath Braxton and Casey Braxton. The eldest, Brax, seems to have emerged as the favorite Braxton brother.

Sources: The baby names NZ loves, Most Popular Male and Female First Names

Image: Adapted from Flag of New Zealand (public domain)

What turned Alias into a baby name in 1971?

The characters Kid Curry and Hannibal Heyes from the TV series "Alias Smith and Jones" (1971-1973)
Kid Curry and Hannibal Heyes

Curiously, the word Alias — which refers to an assumed name — became a name itself in the early 1970s, when it popped up for the first time in the U.S. baby name data:

  • 1973: 5 baby boys named Alias
  • 1972: 6 baby boys named Alias
  • 1971: 7 baby boys named Alias [debut]
  • 1970: unlisted
  • 1969: unlisted

What put it there?

The TV western Alias Smith and Jones, which premiered on ABC in 1971 and lasted until 1973.

The lead characters were a pair of former outlaws trying to reform, so they used aliases:

  • Hannibal Heyes (played initially by actor Pete Duel) went by “Joshua Smith”
  • Jedediah “Kid” Curry (played by actor Ben Murphy) went by “Thaddeus Jones”

To be clear, none of the show’s characters were actually named Alias. The show’s title did make the word seem like a name, though, and that made all the difference.

Title of the TV series "Alias Smith and Jones" (1971-1973)
“Alias Smith and Jones”

The English word alias ultimately comes from the Latin word alius, meaning “other” or “another.”

This makes the rare name Alias a distant cousin of the more familiar name Eleanor. How? Because the name Eleanor evolved out of the Occitan phrase alia Aenor, meaning “other Aenor.” (The very first Eleanor, Aliénor d’Aquitaine, was the daughter of a woman named Aenor, and hence she was the other Aenor.)

So…if your real name was Alias, would you use it, or would you go by an alias? :)

Sources: Alias – Online Etymology Dictionary, Alias Smith and Jones – Wikipedia, Eleanor – Behind the Name