Isa
An Arabic name for boys meaning "life" or "servant of God".
Name Census estimates that about 5,191 living Americans carry the first name Isa. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 53.5% of registrations being female. The average person named Isa today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Isa births was 2024 (316 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Isa. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • Isa sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
People living today
5.2K
~ 1 in 66,029 Americans
Peak year
2024
316 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,029
Tracked since 1880
Gender
Gender distribution for Isa
Isa is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 6,197 total registrations, 2,883 (46.5%) were male and 3,314 (53.5%) were female.
Isa as a male name
- Ranked #1,029 in 2024
- 216 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (216 births)
Isa as a female name
- Ranked #1,968 in 2024
- 100 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2018 (103 births)
Popularity
Isa: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Isa from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,820 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Isa remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Isa by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Isa during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Isas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 20 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Isa, while Oregon, Minnesota, Kentucky recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 122 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Isa
The name Isa has its origins in the Arabic language and culture, believed to have emerged during the early Islamic period around the 7th century AD. It is a variant spelling of the name Isa, which is the Arabic form of the name Jesus.
The name Isa traces its roots to the Semitic root word 'ysh', meaning 'to save' or 'to deliver'. It is derived from the Hebrew name Yeshua, which was later Hellenized as Iesous and then Latinized as Iesus. The name Isa is mentioned several times in the Quran, the holy book of Islam, as a reference to Jesus Christ.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Isa can be found in the Quran itself, where Jesus is referred to as Isa ibn Maryam (Isa, son of Mary). The Quran speaks highly of Isa as a prophet and messenger of God, and he is revered as a significant figure in Islamic tradition.
Throughout history, the name Isa has been borne by several notable figures, including Isa ibn Musa al-Qazwini (1203-1283), a Persian scholar and writer who authored works on geography and natural history. Another prominent individual with this name was Isa ibn Ali al-Nuri (1839-1892), a Sudanese Islamic scholar and religious leader.
In the realm of literature, Isa ibn Hisham (d. 833) was an early Arabic philologist and grammarian who wrote commentaries on the works of ancient Arabic poets. Isa ibn Masah (d. 942) was a renowned physician and scholar from Baghdad, known for his contributions to the field of medicine.
More recently, Isa Boletini (1864-1916) was an Albanian revolutionary and a key figure in the struggle for Albanian independence from the Ottoman Empire. He is considered a national hero in Albania.
The name Isa has been used across various cultures and regions influenced by Islamic traditions, and its meaning and significance are deeply rooted in the Islamic faith and reverence for the Prophet Jesus.
People
Isa + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Isa as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with I
Other first names starting with I with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Isa: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Isa?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5,191 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Isa going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 66,029 US residents.
Is Isa a common name?
We classify Isa as "Rare". It ranks above 96.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 6,197 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Isa most popular?
The single biggest year for Isa was 2024, when 316 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Isa is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Isa a female name?
Yes, 53.5% of people registered as Isa in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.