Isadore
A masculine name of Greek origin meaning "gift of Isis".
Name Census estimates that about 1,261 living Americans carry the first name Isadore. It is a predominantly male name (96.7% of registrations). The average person named Isadore today is around 55 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Isadore births was 1916 (285 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Isadore. 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
- • Although Isadore is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 195 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
1.3K
~ 1 in 271,812 Americans
Peak year
1916
285 babies that year
Average age
55
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,566
Tracked since 1880
Census
Isadore in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,122 people with the first name Isadore, which placed it at #11,421 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#11,421
National first-name rank
People counted
1.1K
1,122 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
40.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Isadore
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Isadore is White at 40.6%. The next largest groups are Black (39.9%) and Hispanic (11.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Isadore described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Isadore at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White40.6% · 455
- Black or African American39.9% · 448
- Hispanic or Latino11.7% · 131
- American Indian and Alaska Native4.1% · 46
- Two or more races3.1% · 35
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 7
Gender
Gender distribution for Isadore
Isadore leans heavily male at 96.7% of total registrations, but 195 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Isadore as a male name
- Ranked #8,566 in 2024
- 9 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1916 (273 births)
Isadore as a female name
- Ranked #11,465 in 2024
- 8 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1917 (14 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Isadore leans strongly male. 1,036 people counted with this name were male (92.5%), compared with 84 female bearers (7.5%).
Popularity
Isadore: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Isadore from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 2,045 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1910s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Isadore 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 Isadore during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Isadores live
The SSA's state-level files cover 21 states and territories. Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois recorded the most babies named Isadore, while Indiana, Colorado, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 132 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Isadore
The name Isadore has its origins in the Greek language and culture, dating back to ancient times. It is derived from the Greek words "isos" meaning "equal" and "doron" meaning "gift," collectively translating to "equal gift" or "gift of equality."
The earliest known record of the name Isadore can be traced back to the 4th century AD, when it was borne by Saint Isidore of Seville, a renowned scholar and philosopher who lived from 560 to 636 AD. He was an influential figure in the early Christian church and is recognized as the last scholar of the ancient world.
In the 7th century, the name Isadore gained prominence with Isidore of Miletus, a Greek mathematician and architect who is credited with the construction of the Hagia Sophia, one of the most magnificent and iconic buildings in Istanbul, Turkey.
Another notable figure with the name Isadore was Isidore of Kiev, a monk and scholar who lived in the 12th century and played a crucial role in the spread of Christianity in Russia. He is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church.
During the Middle Ages, the name Isadore was relatively uncommon but gained popularity in certain regions. One notable bearer of the name was Isidore the Farmer, a Spanish agricultural laborer who lived in the 12th century and is revered as the patron saint of farmers and rural communities in Spain.
In the 19th century, the name Isadore was associated with Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, a French naturalist and zoologist who made significant contributions to the field of teratology, the study of birth defects. He lived from 1805 to 1861.
Over the centuries, the name Isadore has been borne by several other notable individuals, including Isidore Ducasse, a French poet and literary figure known by his pen name Comte de Lautréamont (1846-1870), and Isidore Isou, a Romanian-born French poet and playwright who founded the avant-garde movement Lettrism (1925-2007).
People
Isadore + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Isadore 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
Isadore: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Isadore?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,261 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Isadore 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 271,812 US residents.
Is Isadore a common name?
We classify Isadore as "Rare". It ranks above 91.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,894 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Isadore most popular?
The single biggest year for Isadore was 1916, when 285 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Isadore is about 55 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Isadore in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,122 people with the name Isadore, or 0.37 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,421 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Isadore in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Isadore?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Isadore leans strongly male. 1,036 people counted with this name were male (92.5%), compared with 84 female bearers (7.5%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Isadore?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Isadore is White at 40.6%. The next largest groups are Black (39.9%) and Hispanic (11.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Isadore most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Isadore in the 2020 Census, accounting for 40.6% (455 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Isadore in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Isadore a male name?
Yes, 96.7% of people registered as Isadore in the SSA data are male. 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.
Is Isadore still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Isadore in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Isadore can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
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.
How many people have the name Isadore?
See how many people share the name Isadore on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.