Does Jesus mean ‘Savior’?

Jesus’ name in Greek was Ἰησοῦς Iēsous, which is the Greek transliteration of the original Hebrew/Aramaic יְהוֹשֻׁעַ‬, the same name as the Joshua/Yehoshua in Hebrew. The prophet Moses renamed his successor Hoshea son of Nun to “Jehoshua” (Numbers 13:16) and it sometimes is shortened to The name is shortened to Yeshua ישוע‎ (eg. Nehemiah 8:17). The original Yehoshua is essentially a combination of the Hebrew root שיע meaning “saves” prefixed with the short form of Yahweh, “Yeh”, so together it is “Yahweh saves” or “savior”. Here is an entry from an old lexicon (Gesenius Lexicon) of the first part of the name:

Other concordance definitions can be found here. stating that the meaning is “the LORD is salvation,” Jewish Hebrew scholar Dr. David H. Stern writes:

The Hebrew word for “he will save” is “yoshia‘,” which has the same Hebrew root (yud-shin-‘ayin) as the name Yeshua (yud-shin-vav-‘ayin). Thus the Messiah’s name is explained on the basis of what he will do. Etymologically the name Yeshua is a contraction of the Hebrew name Y’hoshua (English “Joshua”), which means “YHVH saves.” It is also the masculine form of the Hebrew word “yeshu‘ah,” which means “salvation.” …

The New Testament makes it even clearer of the connection:

“She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus (Iesoun), because he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21)