Jesus

/ˈd͡ʒiː.zəs/

The name Jesus is the English form of the Greek Iēsous, itself a transliteration of the Hebrew and Aramaic Yeshua, a Late Biblical Hebrew shortening of Yehoshua (“Joshua”), meaning “Yahweh is salvation” or “Yahweh saves.” The name was common among

US Rank

No. 164

Births

2,210

Peak Year

2001

Jewish men in the Second Temple period, borne by figures including the high priest Jeshua mentioned in Ezra and Nehemiah and the author of the apocryphal book Sirach (Jesus ben Sirach), composed in Hebrew around 180 BCE.

The defining bearer is Jesus of Nazareth (circa 4 BCE - 30 CE), the central figure of Christianity, whose teachings as recorded in the 4 canonical Gospels reshaped the religious history of the Mediterranean world and beyond.

What the name Jesus means

Out of reverence, the name was largely avoided as a personal name in most Christian cultures for nearly 2000 years, with the notable exception of the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America, where it has remained a common given name expressing devotion to

the Holy Name.

The Spanish form Jesús spread through the colonization of the Americas and produced numerous historical and contemporary bearers, including the Mexican revolutionary Jesús García, the Argentine writer Jesús Sepúlveda, and the football manager Jesús

Navas.

In literature, the name appears in works by Gabriel García Márquez and Jorge Luis Borges, and in cinema through Mexican golden-age films.

The Society of Jesus, founded by Saint Ignatius of Loyola in 1540, established the most prominent religious order bearing the name.

Jesus entered the SSA top 1000 for boys in the late 19th century with Hispanic immigration to the United States and has remained continuously in the top 200 since the 1960s.

By 2023 it sat in the top 200, used almost exclusively by Hispanic and Latino families, where it is pronounced hay-SOOS.

Notable contemporary bearers include Manchester City footballer Gabriel Jesus and former Spain striker Jesús Navas, both raising the international profile of the name.