How Jesus Got His Name

According to the gospel of Luke, it was the angel Gabriel (Luke 1:31) who informed Mary that she was going to give birth to a son. His name would be Yeshua - aka Jesus. The name Jesus doesn't mean anything - it comes from the Latin transliteration of the Greek name Iesous. The original Hebrew name Yeshua, which was an abbreviation of Yahoshua, meant “Lord who is Salvation.”

During the time of Jesus there were relatively few names used to name people. Nearly one in every four girls was named Mary, nearly one in every ten boys was named Yeshua. Yeshua was the fifth most common name at the time - the equivalent of the name William in popularity within the US for the year 2010. Right now there is a chance you know someone with a baby named William. There were other Yeshua's, but probably just one Yeshua of Nazareth, given the size of the population at the time.

References:

The Nazarene Way: Yeshua, Jesus, or YH-Zeus?
Jesus 8880: The Evolution of the Name Jesus