Josiah

According to 2 Kings 22-23 and 2 Chronicles 34-35, he ascended the throne at the age of eight and led a sweeping religious reform after the high priest Hilkiah discovered a scroll of the Law in the Temple.

He destroyed the altars of Baal, centralized worship in Jerusalem, and reinstated the Passover. He died at the battle of Megiddo against the forces of Pharaoh Necho II, an event the prophet Jeremiah is said to have lamented.

The name traveled into English use through the Puritans, who favored Old Testament names that signaled covenant piety.

Colonial New England produced clockmaker Josiah Wedgwood in England (1730-1795), founder of the famous pottery house, and statesman Josiah Quincy, mayor of Boston and president of Harvard.

The character of Josiah Bartlet, the fictional president in Aaron Sorkin’s series The West Wing, brought the name into modern American living rooms, while it appears in novels from Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier to Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian.

Josiah hovered in the lower reaches of the SSA top 1000 throughout the twentieth century, then climbed steadily after 1990, riding the broader American revival of biblical names.

It entered the top 100 in 2009 and reached its current plateau near 60th by 2024. Use is concentrated in the United States and increasingly in evangelical communities across Australia and Canada.

Contemporary bearers include NBA forward Josiah Gray, country singer Josiah Leming, and the sons of figures such as Kevin Costner and Snoop Dogg. The diminutive Joss provides a softer everyday option.