About Abby Sandel

Whether you're naming a baby, or just all about names, you've come to the right place! Appellation Mountain is a haven for lovers of obscure gems and enduring classics alike.

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10 Comments

  1. The italian form is Giosue, pronounced zha-SWAY. Giosue Orefice is the name of the child in the 1998 film Life is Beautiful (La Vita e Bella) starring Roberto Benigni. The film won 3 oscars including Best Foreign Language Film.

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  2. You wrote in the Hosea post that Yehoshua means “God is salvation”, but here it’s listed differently.

    Yehoshua is made up of Yahu [yud.hey] meaning “Yahweh/God”, and Shuach [shin.vav.chet] meaning “salvation.”

    Jesus is from Yeshua, a contraction of Yehoshua. Since ‘ho’ [hey] doesn’t mean “salvation”, I’d say it’s impossible for Yehoshua to mean “Jesus is my salvation” [especially since there is no possessive syllable]. So the meaning is not

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    1. Thanks, Panya. It did cross my mind that Hosea was part of the Yehoshu’a soup, but I didn’t take the time to look at it. And I completely missed the lack of a possessive. You’re right – the definition here should be “God is salvation.” The “Jesus is my salvation” is an elaboration from the baby name books – doubtless one that appeals to many parents, but not technically correct.

      I assume the “like Jesus” meaning is based just on the two names’ similarity. If I understand correctly, Hoshea/Hosea/Joshua and Jesus all became Jesus when the Hebrew was translated to the Greek … but I’m not sure I have that exactly right.

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  3. I’m in California, a native speaker of Spanish, and surrounded by lots of people who speak Spanish.

    I love the name Josue, but it never made it to my lists because of potential pronunciation issues – and I had not even considered the feminine “Jo Sue”!

    Beautiful name, but I suspect for most people it would make more sense as a middle name.

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  4. When I first saw the name in my e-mail, I thought it was Jos-you or maybe Joz-you. Not correct, and obviously makes is seem like a shortened version of Joshua. I don’t think it would be viable here, because people would never say or spell it right. That is the same hang up I have with all the pretty Gaelic names…lovely, but would cause lots of headaches.

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  5. Jo-Sue. I didn’t even see that until you mentioned it. I was thinking ZHO-su-ee, which reminded me of that noise they make to call pigs. Something of a “soooo-eeee!” I couldn’t appreciate this name unless a non-native English-speaker were to waltz in and say it in a thick accent. It just sounds so rough and heavy on my tongue.

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  6. It’s appealing in a foreign name sort of way (the French pronunciation is lovely), but not in a domestic sort of way (trying to think like most people I encounter, who are confused by my kid’s name, Jo-Sue is a girl). If you live in a community where the people might recognize it as a Latinate version of Joshua, then it works, but in the many places without the benefit of a urban setting or a large Hispanic population, I think you’d be explaining the name ad nauseum.

    The difference between Josue and the comparative mentioned, Joaquin, is two-fold, I believe. First, Josue *looks* like it could be a mash-up, whereas Joaquin just looks ‘foreign’ thereby earning it a “how do you say this” from those who don’t know, rather than a guess, which is what I believe Josue would get… (“Joe-soo?”). Second, there is Joaquin Phoenix. Sure helps familiarity when there’s a celeb with the name. I really like Joaquin, by the way… the Spanish pronunciation is nice, but the Portuguese (Zhwah-) is even more wonderful… but I’d never have the ovaries to use it.

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  7. I much prefer the French pronunciation. I could see the name working in SA , having a history of Lebanese & Portuguese heritage here. I’ve known a Caesar, so I can see the name working. There would pronunciation problems, though. I could image some maybe saying it in the Afrikaans way , which is completely opposite, as ‘j’ sound like a ‘y’ etc Imagine how the name would be said in Dutch is probably how some people would say it here

    The cross-cultural part doesn’t both me at all. I can see Josue as being a viable cross-cultural name.Pronunciation being the only problem

    Other than that, the only -jo name that I like is Joshua & that isn’t said as -joe.I dislike essentially all -jo names & Josue, unfortunately also falls under that banner.It’s a personal quirk. However, I’d much rather see something like this as opposed to Anthony or Vincent

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