In 1969, the year I was born,
Joshua
cracked the top 200 names for American boys for the first time since records began to be kept in 1880: #197. Forty years earlier, in 1929, Joshua had ranked #729, and the name started the 1960s well into the 400s. In my childhood, however, it became very popular: by 1979, it was in the top ten; by 1983, it was in the top five. Indeed, Joshua was the third-, fourth-, or fifth-
most-popular name
for boys every year from 1983 to 2008. A consequence of this extended prominence is that, although the name has now lost some of its luster (in 2022, it came in at #60), Joshua’s
overall rank
in the hundred years from 1923 to 2022 is high: #20.