Joshua (English)

Where does "Joshua" come from?

The name Joshua originates from the Biblical Hebrew 'Yehoshúa', which likely combines the name of God, Yahweh, with a term meaning salvation. While Joshua traveled into English through this direct Hebrew root, it is etymologically a cognate of Jesus, as both names share the same linguistic ancestor in variant Aramaic and Hebrew forms that were rendered as 'Iēsoûs' in Ancient Greek.

Full etymology tree

• Joshua (English), 'The sixth book of the Old Testament of the Bible, and a book of the Tanakh.'
  • borrowed יְהוֹשֻׁעַ (Yehoshúa') (Biblical Hebrew)
    • compound יהוה (YHWH) (Biblical Hebrew)
      • inherited *hwy (Proto-Semitic)
    • compound הוֹשֵׁעַ (Hoshéa') (Biblical Hebrew)
      • derived הוֹשִׁיעַ (hoshía) (Biblical Hebrew)

Direct ancestors

• Iesus (Latin)
• Ἰησοῦς (Ancient Greek)

Updated June 2026

Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris