Issac
Of Hebrew origin, denoting "he will laugh" or "he laughs".
Name Census estimates that about 21,735 living Americans carry the first name Issac. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Issac today is around 26 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Issac births was 2008 (820 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Issac. 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 Issac with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
22K
~ 1 in 15,770 Americans
Peak year
2008
820 babies that year
Average age
26
years old
2024 SSA rank
#854
Tracked since 1880
Census
Issac in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 21,364 people with the first name Issac, which placed it at #1,539 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
#1,539
National first-name rank
People counted
21K
21,364 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
7.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
49.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Issac
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Issac is Hispanic at 49.3%. The next largest groups are White (27.7%) and Black (15.2%). 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 Issac 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 Issac at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino49.3% · 10,526
- White27.7% · 5,914
- Black or African American15.2% · 3,241
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.5% · 749
- Two or more races3.3% · 702
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 232
Gender
Gender distribution for Issac
Out of the 24,304 babies given the name Issac since 1880, 99.9% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Issac as a male name
- Ranked #854 in 2024
- 283 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2008 (820 births)
Issac as a female name
- Ranked #9,458 in 1983
- 6 female births in 1983
- Peak: 1976 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Issac appears almost entirely male. Of the 21,365 people counted with this name, 99.6% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Issac: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Issac from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 6,789 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Issac 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 Issac during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Issacs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 43 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Issac, while Montana, Hawaii, Connecticut recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 462 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Issac
The name Isaac has its origins in the Hebrew language and culture, dating back to ancient times. It is derived from the Hebrew name "Yitzchak," meaning "he will laugh" or "he laughs." This name is rooted in the biblical story of Abraham and Sarah, who were promised a son in their old age and named him Isaac, as Sarah had laughed in disbelief at the prophecy.
The name Isaac is prominently featured in the book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible, which is also part of the Christian Old Testament. It is the name given to the son of Abraham and Sarah, who went on to become an important patriarch in the Abrahamic faiths. The name has significant religious and cultural significance within Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Isaac can be found in the Hebrew Bible, dated around the 6th century BCE. Over the centuries, the name has been used by numerous notable figures throughout history. Among them are Isaac Newton (1642-1727), the renowned English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, and natural philosopher, who is widely regarded as one of the most influential scientists of all time.
Another prominent figure with the name Isaac was Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902-1991), a Polish-American writer and Nobel Prize laureate in Literature. He is widely acclaimed for his works depicting the lives and struggles of Jewish communities in Poland before and during the Holocaust.
In the world of music, Isaac Stern (1920-2001) was an accomplished American violinist and conductor, renowned for his contributions to the classical music scene. He was also a prominent advocate for the preservation of Jewish culture and heritage.
The name Isaac has also been associated with political figures, such as Isaac Itzkovitch (1892-1938), a Soviet Bolshevik revolutionary and politician who played a significant role in the Russian Revolution and the early years of the Soviet Union.
In the field of literature, Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) was a prolific American writer and professor, best known for his works of science fiction and popular science books. His novels, such as the Foundation series, have had a lasting impact on the genre and inspired generations of readers and writers.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who have borne the name Isaac, demonstrating its enduring presence and significance across various cultures and disciplines.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Issac
People
Issac + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Issac 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
Issac: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Issac?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 21,735 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Issac 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 15,770 US residents.
Is Issac a common name?
We classify Issac as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 24,304 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Issac most popular?
The single biggest year for Issac was 2008, when 820 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Issac is about 26 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Issac in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 21,364 people with the name Issac, or 7.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,539 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 Issac 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 Issac?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Issac appears almost entirely male. Of the 21,365 people counted with this name, 99.6% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Issac?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Issac is Hispanic at 49.3%. The next largest groups are White (27.7%) and Black (15.2%). 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 Issac most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Issac in the 2020 Census, accounting for 49.3% (10,526 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 Issac in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Issac a male name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Issac 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 Issac still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Issac 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 Issac 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 Issac?
You can see how many people have the name Issac on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.