Joshua has been in the US Top 10 since 1979, longer than all but the most evergreen of given names.
Name of the Day: Josue
on Feb 19, 2010
on Feb 19, 2010
Joshua has been in the US Top 10 since 1979, longer than all but the most evergreen of given names.
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.
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
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.
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.
Christina, how would you say it?
Ho-swe…
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.
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.
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.
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