Isham
An Arabic masculine name derived from the term meaning "protector".
Name Census estimates that about 148 living Americans carry the first name Isham. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Isham today is around 60 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Isham births was 1922 (27 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Isham. 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.
People living today
148
~ 1 in 2,315,908 Americans
Peak year
1922
27 babies that year
Average age
60
years old
2022 SSA rank
#11,402
Tracked since 1880
Census
Isham in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 239 people with the first name Isham, which placed it at #34,236 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
#34,236
National first-name rank
People counted
239
239 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
44.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Isham
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Isham is White at 44.8%. The next largest groups are Black (31.4%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (8.8%). 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 Isham 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 Isham at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White44.8% · 107
- Black or African American31.4% · 75
- Asian and Pacific Islander8.8% · 21
- Hispanic or Latino7.5% · 18
- Two or more races5.9% · 14
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.7% · 4
Popularity
Isham: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Isham from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 151 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Isham 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 Isham during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ishams live
Origin
Meaning and history of Isham
The name Isham is of English origin, derived from the Old English words "is" meaning ice and "ham" meaning a homestead or village. It was initially used as a locational surname, referring to someone who lived near an icy or frozen area.
In the 11th century, the name was first recorded as "Isham" in the Domesday Book, a manuscript record of landholdings and settlements in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. This early documentation suggests the name's longstanding presence in the region.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Isham was Sir John Isham, a 14th-century English landowner and knight who fought in the Hundred Years' War between England and France. He was born around 1320 and died in 1389.
Another notable figure was Sir Euseby Isham, a 16th-century English politician and member of Parliament, born in 1504 and died in 1580. He served as the High Sheriff of Northamptonshire and was known for his involvement in local governance.
In the 17th century, the name Isham gained prominence with Rev. Stephen Isham, an English Puritan minister born in 1597. He immigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635 and became a notable figure in the early colonial history of New England.
Later, in the 18th century, Isham Randolph (1743-1818) was a prominent American planter and landowner from Virginia. He served as a delegate to the Continental Congress and was involved in the early political affairs of the newly formed United States.
During the 19th century, Isham G. Harris (1818-1897) was a notable American politician who served as the governor of Tennessee from 1857 to 1862 and as a Senator in the Confederate Congress during the American Civil War.
While the name Isham has its roots in England and was primarily used in the British Isles, it has also been adopted and used in other parts of the world, particularly in North America, due to immigration and cultural exchange.
People
Isham + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Isham 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
Isham: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Isham?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 148 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Isham 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 2,315,908 US residents.
Is Isham a common name?
We classify Isham as "Very Rare". It ranks above 70.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 615 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Isham most popular?
The single biggest year for Isham was 1922, when 27 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Isham is about 60 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Isham in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 239 people with the name Isham, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #34,236 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 Isham 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 Isham?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Isham leans strongly male. 225 people counted with this name were male (95.3%), compared with 11 female bearers (4.7%). 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 Isham?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Isham is White at 44.8%. The next largest groups are Black (31.4%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (8.8%). 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 Isham most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Isham in the 2020 Census, accounting for 44.8% (107 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 Isham in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Isham a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Isham 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 Isham still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Isham 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 Isham 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 Isham?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.