Is Joshua's name day December 25 or September 1?

September 1 is the long established Christian commemoration of Joshua son of Nun, kept by the Orthodox Church in America. National Joshua Day is listed on December 25, and no source connects the two dates.

What does the name Joshua mean?

It comes from the Hebrew Yehoshua, which means Yahweh is salvation. The Hebrew Bible says the man who carried it was first called Hoshea.

Who created National Joshua Day and why is it on December 25?

The day appears on holiday listing sites and circulates on social media, which is the whole of its documented footprint. No founder or establishing record has been identified, and no source gives a reason for the date.

National Joshua Day

Next celebratedFriday, December 25, 2026

Joshua and Jesus are one Hebrew name, Yehoshua, reaching English by two routes.

See how to celebrate

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Last updated August 19, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?

YEARLY DATEDecember 25

OBSERVED INUnited States

CATEGORYNames

ORIGIN

Community Origin

FOUNDING ENTITY

Not documented

FIRST OBSERVED

Not documented

HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

The paper trail begins with holiday listings.

No documented founder or formal establishment record has been identified for National Joshua Day. The observance appears on holiday listing sites and circulates on social media.

+ Know the story? Submit a founder Help us complete this holiday

INTRO

Hebrew name that arrived in English twice

Open a King James Bible at Hebrews 4:8 and you meet a sentence about Jesus that is not about Jesus. The man it describes is Joshua, son of Nun, and that tangle is the real subject of National Joshua Day.

The 1611 text reads: "For if Iesus had giuen them rest, then would he not afterward haue spoken of another day". Acts 7:45 does the same thing a second time. Both verses are talking about the man who took over from Moses.

Joshua and Jesus are the same Hebrew name, Yehoshua, arriving in English by two different routes. One ran through Greek and then Latin, and it produced Jesus. The other followed the Hebrew form into a Late Latin transliteration, and it produced Joshua.

Modern translations pulled the two apart. Bible Hub's parallel page sets the King James wording beside six current versions, and every one of them prints Joshua in that verse. The old reading looks like an error, and it is not one.

ORIGINS

Joshua Day history

INTRODUCTION

The Hebrew Bible does not introduce him as Joshua. Britannica records that he is identified as the son of Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim, and that his name at first is Hoshea. Moses changes it in the Book of Numbers.

The name Moses gives him means Yahweh is salvation. The Book of Joshua, sixth in the Hebrew Bible, hands him the leadership after Moses dies and follows him into Canaan.

CHAPTER 01

A name that reached English late

For centuries the name stayed in scripture rather than in the parish register. Behind the Name records that Joshua has been in use as an English given name only since the Protestant Reformation.

By the eighteenth century it belonged to the leading portrait painter of the day. Sir Joshua Reynolds became the Royal Academy's first president in 1768. He held the office until he died in 1792.

CHAPTER 02

American Joshuas

In San Francisco the name attached itself to one of the odder figures in American civic life. In September 1859, Joshua Abraham Norton walked a letter into the office of the San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin and declared himself Emperor of these United States. The paper printed it.

Norton then issued his own currency, and the city accepted it. The census of 1870 recorded his occupation as Emperor.

A generation later another Joshua left Boston alone. Joshua Slocum sailed out in April 1895 aboard a rebuilt fishing boat called the Spray, and came home to Newport three years later as the first man on record to circle the globe by himself.

CHAPTER 03

A day without a record

The observance itself is where the trail stops. No founder is on record for National Joshua Day, no establishing act and no filing, and the day lives on holiday listings and in social posts.

The Federal Register returns nothing for the exact phrase, while a control phrase run the same way returns thirty six documents. That is an absence tested rather than assumed.

The name's older claim on the calendar sits elsewhere. The Orthodox Church in America commemorates Righteous Joshua, son of Nun, on September 1, and no source connects that date to this one.

TIMELINE

Timeline

Reynolds leads the Royal Academy

Sir Joshua Reynolds was elected a Royal Academician and became the new Academy's first president.

Joshua Norton crowns himself

A San Francisco paper printed Joshua Abraham Norton's letter proclaiming himself Emperor of these United States.

Slocum leaves Boston alone

Joshua Slocum sailed from Boston in the Spray and returned to Newport in 1898 after circling the world by himself.

Absent from the American top 200

Joshua did not appear among the Social Security Administration's 200 most popular boys' names for the decade.

Runner up in England and Wales

Joshua finished second among boys' names in England and Wales, the first of four consecutive years behind Jack.

Down to 53rd in England and Wales

Office for National Statistics figures placed Joshua 53rd among boys' names registered that year.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why National Joshua Day Matters

GATHERING

Hundreds of Joshes, pool noodles, and a four year old champion.

On April 24, 2021, hundreds of people who share the first name Josh met at a park in Lincoln, Nebraska, and fought with pool noodles for the right to the name. NPR reported that a four year old won it and that the day doubled as a food drive.

COHORT

The name now dates the person carrying it

Michael, Christopher, Matthew, Joshua and David were the five biggest American boys' names of the 1980s. Four decades on, Social Security Administration figures for 2020 to 2025 leave Joshua lowest of those five, at 58th.

LANDSCAPE

A desert park carries the name

Joshua Tree National Park carries the name, and so do the yuccas that fill it. The National Park Service estimates about 870,000 Joshua trees inside the park, and records that the Cahuilla knew the plant as hunuvat chiy'a long before English speakers had a word for it.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Joshua Day by the Numbers

1,246,279: US boys named Joshua since 1926
396,524: US boys named Joshua in the 1980s
3rd: Rank among US boys' names, 2000s
31,854: US boys named Joshua, 2020 to 2025
8,190: Boys named Joshua in England and Wales, 2003

MYTH VS FACT

Common Misconceptions

The myth

Mormon settlers named the Joshua tree because its branches looked like Joshua raising his arms in prayer.

The truth

The National Park Service repeats that story and then says historical records offer little evidence for it, noting a rival reading in which the tree's sharp leaves suggested an armed force.

The myth

Historians read the Book of Joshua's conquest of Canaan as a straightforward record of events.

The truth

Britannica notes that many modern historians and biblical critics do not, and that many propose a gradual process of settlement and social change instead.

GET INVOLVED

How to Observe National Joshua Day

Read the two verses that call Joshua Jesus

Hebrews 4:8 and Acts 7:45 both carry the Greek form of the name in the King James Version. Setting either one beside a modern translation shows the whole split in a glance.

LOOK

Look up the name decade by decade

The Social Security Administration publishes the 200 most popular boys' names for every decade it has data for. Open two of those tables side by side and the arc of the name takes about a minute to read.

WALK

Walk among the trees that borrowed the name

Joshua Tree National Park takes its name from a plant, the yucca called Yucca brevifolia. The park service publishes its own account of where it grows and how tall it gets.

Follow one Joshua into a real archive

The Royal Academy of Arts still keeps the record of the painter who led it from 1768 until his death. Institutional files like that one turn a name on a calendar into a documented person.

SEND

Send the day's greeting to a Joshua you know

A name day points at the people who carry the name rather than at any institution behind it. That makes a single message the most direct way to observe this one.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Joshua Day?

1 / 8

In the King James Bible, what name appears at Hebrews 4:8 where the person meant is Joshua?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance with no legal recognition found in federal or congressional records, so it is a normal working day.

COLOPHON

Sources

How we know what’s on this page. References, not endorsements.

20sources

14primary records

11independently dated

Primary records

Social Security Administration2026-03

Top Names Over the Last 100 Years

The 100 most common US boys' and girls' names for 1926 to 2025, with counts.