Issiac
A masculine name derived from the Biblical name Isaac, meaning "he laughs".
Name Census estimates that about 103 living Americans carry the first name Issiac. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Issiac today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Issiac births was 2006 (13 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Issiac. 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
103
~ 1 in 3,327,712 Americans
Peak year
2006
13 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2012 SSA rank
#10,126
Tracked since 1981
Census
Issiac in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 230 people with the first name Issiac, which placed it at #35,134 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
#35,134
National first-name rank
People counted
230
230 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
33.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Issiac
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Issiac is White at 33.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (30.0%) and Black (28.7%). 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 Issiac 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 Issiac at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White33.0% · 76
- Hispanic or Latino30.0% · 69
- Black or African American28.7% · 66
- Two or more races5.7% · 13
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 3
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.3% · 3
Popularity
Issiac: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Issiac from the 1980s through to the 2010s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 67 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
Issiac 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 Issiac 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 Issiac
The given name Issiac has its origins in ancient Egyptian culture, dating back to the time of the pharaohs. It is derived from the Greek name "Isidoros," which means "gift of Isis." Isis was one of the most revered goddesses in the ancient Egyptian pantheon, considered the divine mother and protector of kings.
In ancient Egyptian mythology, Isis was the daughter of the earth god Geb and the sky goddess Nut. She was the wife of Osiris, the god of the afterlife, and played a crucial role in the cycle of life and death. Isis was often depicted as a woman wearing a throne-like headdress and holding a sacred ankh, symbolizing life.
The name Issiac first appeared in ancient Greek texts, where it was used to refer to those who followed the cult of Isis or were devoted to her worship. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in the writings of the Greek historian Plutarch, who lived in the 1st century AD.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Issiac. One of the most famous was Issiac of Miletus, a Greek philosopher who lived in the 5th century BC. He was a student of Pythagoras and is credited with establishing a school of philosophy in Miletus, an ancient Greek city located in modern-day Turkey.
Another significant figure was Issiac of Alexandria, a Greek philosopher and mathematician who lived in the 3rd century AD. He was a prominent figure in the Neoplatonic school of thought and is known for his contributions to the study of mathematics and astronomy.
In the realm of religion, Issiac of Gaza was a 5th-century Christian martyr who was tortured and executed for his faith during the persecutions of the Roman Emperor Diocletian.
During the Byzantine era, Issiac the Exarch was a prominent military leader who served as the governor of Ravenna, a city in modern-day Italy, in the late 6th century AD. He played a crucial role in defending the city against the Lombard invasions.
In the field of literature, Issiac of Antioch was a 6th-century Greek poet and grammarian who is known for his work on the interpretation of ancient texts and his contributions to the study of language.
People
Issiac + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Issiac 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
Issiac: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Issiac?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 103 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Issiac 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 3,327,712 US residents.
Is Issiac a common name?
We classify Issiac as "Very Rare". It ranks above 65% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 105 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Issiac most popular?
The single biggest year for Issiac was 2006, when 13 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Issiac is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Issiac in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 230 people with the name Issiac, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #35,134 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 Issiac 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 Issiac?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Issiac appears almost entirely male. Of the 233 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 Issiac?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Issiac is White at 33.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (30.0%) and Black (28.7%). 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 Issiac most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Issiac in the 2020 Census, accounting for 33.0% (76 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 Issiac in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Issiac a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Issiac 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 Issiac still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Issiac 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 Issiac 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 Issiac?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.