A Greek and Eastern European form of Joshua, meaning Yahweh is salvation.
Iosua is the Romanian and Polynesian form of Joshua, tracing its lineage back to the Hebrew *Yehoshua* — meaning *YHWH is salvation* — one of the most historically consequential names in the Abrahamic traditions. In the Hebrew Bible, Yehoshua bin Nun was Moses's military successor, the leader who crossed the Jordan River and led the Israelites into Canaan. The Greek transliteration *Iēsous* and its further Latin rendering *Iosue* established the phonetic lineage that gave rise to both the English Joshua and the Romanian Iosua.
In Romania, Iosua carries the same biblical weight as Joshua does in English-speaking Protestant communities, though it has remained a relatively uncommon given name — considered somewhat formal or old-fashioned in modern Romanian usage, appearing most often in deeply religious families or those with a taste for Old Testament names. In Romanian Orthodox tradition, the name day for Iosua is observed with the same quiet reverence as other biblical figures. In Polynesia — particularly in Samoa, Tonga, and Hawaii — Iosua (sometimes spelled Iosefa or Iosua interchangeably depending on island tradition) arrived through nineteenth-century missionary activity, when biblical names were adopted and adapted to fit Polynesian phonology, which lacks certain consonant clusters of English.
The name has become genuinely Polynesian in feel, used across generations as a given name that honors Christian heritage while sounding entirely natural in te reo Māori or Samoan. For parents of Romanian or Pacific Island heritage, Iosua offers a name with deep roots that remains beautifully unfamiliar to most English-speaking ears.