About Josue
Josue is the unaccented spelling of Josué, a French, Spanish, and Portuguese form of Joshua. Its Hebrew meaning is “Yahweh is salvation.” The same written name belongs to several languages, each with its own pronunciation, and carries a biblical history alongside a memorable role in Brazilian cinema.
Meaning and biblical background
The name ultimately comes from Hebrew Yehoshua. Its elements refer to Yahweh, the Hebrew name of God, and to saving or delivering. Joshua is the familiar English form, while Josué represents the name in several Romance languages.
In the Old Testament, Joshua is a companion of Moses and one of the twelve men sent to explore Canaan. After Moses dies, Joshua succeeds him as leader of the Israelites. The biblical account places him at the transition from the wilderness journey to the conquest of Canaan, making him a figure of leadership in the narrative.
The name’s wider family includes Hebrew Yehoshua, Basque Josu, and Italian Giosuè. Jesus also has a historical linguistic connection, coming through Greek from Yeshua, a shorter form of the same Hebrew name. Josue and Joshua are therefore close relatives despite their different sounds in everyday speech.
Pronunciation across languages
Spanish Josué is approximately ho-SWEH, with two syllables and the stress on the ending. The Spanish j has a breathy or throaty sound rather than the English j of “jam.”
Portuguese Josué has three syllables, approximately zho-zoo-EH in Brazilian Portuguese, with the opening sound heard in the middle of “vision.” French uses a pronunciation closer to zho-ZWEH. The accent in Josué belongs to the standard spelling in these languages; Josue is the form tracked here in American records.
The full name is already compact in Spanish. Josu is a related Basque form, while Josh belongs especially to English Joshua; neither has to replace the pronunciation of Josue itself.
Josué in Central Station
In Walter Salles’s 1998 film Central Station, Josué is a nine-year-old boy whose mother seeks help from Dora, a former teacher who writes letters for people at Rio de Janeiro’s railway station.
After the mother dies, Dora and Josué become unlikely traveling companions. They cross Brazil in search of his family, and their gradually changing relationship becomes the heart of the film. Fernanda Montenegro plays Dora, with Vinícius de Oliveira as Josué.
The film won the Golden Bear at Berlin and the BAFTA for a film not in the English language. Its story gives the Portuguese name an important connection to a journey centered on family and an unexpected bond between a child and an adult.
American popularity
Josue reached its American peak in 2007, with 2,272 boys and a rank of 181st. It had risen from 328 boys in 1980 to 1,353 in 2000.
In 2025, 1,026 boys received Josue, ranking 330th. Those figures describe this exact spelling, with its strongest period in the early twenty-first century.
Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution
Meaning and history draw on the references below. American popularity uses the local Social Security Administration series for this exact spelling and sex; counts below five are omitted. Existing Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA. Suggested shortenings are identified in the prose.
How popular is Josue?
In 2025, Josue ranked #330 among boys in the United States, with 1,026 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for boys in 1924; its largest annual count was 2,272 in 2007. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.