Ishmeal
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "God will hear".
Name Census estimates that about 227 living Americans carry the first name Ishmeal. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Ishmeal today is around 33 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ishmeal births was 1997 (14 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ishmeal. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Ishmeal with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
227
~ 1 in 1,509,931 Americans
Peak year
1997
14 babies that year
Average age
33
years old
2017 SSA rank
#10,116
Tracked since 1916
Census
Ishmeal in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 283 people with the first name Ishmeal, which placed it at #30,644 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
#30,644
National first-name rank
People counted
283
283 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
70.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ishmeal
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ishmeal is Black at 70.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (19.4%) and White (6.4%). 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 Ishmeal 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 Ishmeal at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American70.7% · 200
- Hispanic or Latino19.4% · 55
- White6.4% · 18
- Two or more races2.5% · 7
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 3
Popularity
Ishmeal: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ishmeal from the 1910s through to the 2010s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 91 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ishmeal 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 Ishmeal during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ishmeal
The name Ishmael has its origins in the Hebrew language and is derived from the Biblical name "Yishma'el," which means "God will hear." The name first appears in the Book of Genesis, where Ishmael is described as the son of Abraham and his Egyptian concubine, Hagar.
According to the Bible, Ishmael was born around 1900 BCE and was the progenitor of the Ishmaelites, a nomadic Bedouin tribe that inhabited the deserts of northern Arabia. The story of Ishmael and his mother Hagar being cast out into the wilderness by Abraham's wife Sarah is a significant narrative in the Abrahamic religions.
In Islamic tradition, Ishmael is considered a prophet and an important figure in the lineage of the Prophet Muhammad. The annual Islamic ritual of Hajj, which involves pilgrims symbolically reenacting the trials of Hagar and Ishmael in the desert, is a testament to the significance of Ishmael in Muslim faith.
One of the earliest recorded individuals named Ishmael was Ishmael ben Elisha, a celebrated Jewish scholar who lived in the 2nd century CE in ancient Judea. He is renowned for his contributions to the Mishnah, a foundational text of Rabbinic Judaism.
In the 11th century, Ishmael Ghazali, a Persian philosopher, theologian, and mystic, was a prominent figure in the Islamic Golden Age. His seminal work, "The Revival of the Religious Sciences," had a profound impact on the development of Islamic thought and ethics.
During the Renaissance period, Ishmael Abūlays, also known as Ishmael Zevi, was a Jewish writer and philosopher born in Portugal in the late 15th century. He was an influential figure in the intellectual and cultural life of the Sephardic Jewish community in the Ottoman Empire.
In the realm of literature, Ishmael is the name of the narrator in Herman Melville's iconic novel "Moby-Dick," published in 1851. The character's name is a symbolic representation of his outsider status and his struggle to find meaning in a world dominated by the whaling industry.
Another notable Ishmael was Ishmael Reed, an American novelist, poet, and essayist born in 1938. He is celebrated for his satirical and experimental writing, which often explores issues of race, culture, and identity in American society.
People
Ishmeal + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ishmeal 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
Ishmeal: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ishmeal?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 227 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ishmeal 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 1,509,931 US residents.
Is Ishmeal a common name?
We classify Ishmeal as "Very Rare". It ranks above 75.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 301 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ishmeal most popular?
The single biggest year for Ishmeal was 1997, when 14 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ishmeal is about 33 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ishmeal in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 283 people with the name Ishmeal, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #30,644 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 Ishmeal 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 Ishmeal?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ishmeal leans strongly male. 282 people counted with this name were male (98.6%), compared with 4 female bearers (1.4%). 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 Ishmeal?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ishmeal is Black at 70.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (19.4%) and White (6.4%). 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 Ishmeal most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Ishmeal in the 2020 Census, accounting for 70.7% (200 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 Ishmeal in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ishmeal a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ishmeal 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 Ishmeal still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ishmeal 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 Ishmeal 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 are called Ishmeal?
Find out how many people have the name Ishmeal on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.