Moishe
A masculine name of Hebrew origin derived from Moses.
Name Census estimates that about 1,127 living Americans carry the first name Moishe. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Moishe today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Moishe births was 2015 (38 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Moishe. 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 Moishe with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.1K
~ 1 in 304,130 Americans
Peak year
2015
38 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,739
Tracked since 1950
Census
Moishe in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 926 people with the first name Moishe, which placed it at #13,143 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
#13,143
National first-name rank
People counted
926
926 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
96.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Moishe
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Moishe is White at 96.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (1.5%) and Black (0.9%). 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 Moishe 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 Moishe at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White96.9% · 897
- Hispanic or Latino1.5% · 14
- Black or African American0.9% · 8
- Two or more races0.6% · 6
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 1
Popularity
Moishe: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Moishe from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 259 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Moishe remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Moishe 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 Moishe during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Moishes live
Origin
Meaning and history of Moishe
The name Moishe is a Yiddish variant of the Hebrew name Moshe, which is derived from the Hebrew root meaning "to draw out" or "to pull out." This name is most famously associated with Moses, the Biblical prophet who led the Israelites out of Egypt and received the Ten Commandments from God.
The name Moishe has its origins in Eastern Europe, where it was commonly used among Ashkenazi Jewish communities. It first appeared in written records around the 12th century, when the Yiddish language began to develop and spread among Jewish communities in the Rhineland region of Germany.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Moishe was Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, also known as Maimonides, a renowned Jewish philosopher, and scholar who lived in Spain and Egypt from 1135 to 1204. He is best known for his influential work, the Mishneh Torah, a codification of Jewish law.
Another notable figure in history bearing the name Moishe was Moshe Idel, a leading scholar of Jewish mysticism who lived from 1947 to 2022. He made significant contributions to the study of Kabbalah and influenced the development of modern Jewish thought.
In the field of literature, Moishe Nadir, a Yiddish writer, and poet who lived from 1885 to 1943, is remembered for his works that captured the life and struggles of Jewish communities in Eastern Europe during the early 20th century.
Moving into the realm of politics, Moishe Dayan, an Israeli military leader and politician, played a pivotal role in several major conflicts, including the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and the Six-Day War in 1967. He served as Israel's Defense Minister from 1967 to 1974 and was known for his iconic eye patch.
Lastly, Moishe Oysher, a celebrated Yiddish-language actor and singer who lived from 1888 to 1958, made significant contributions to the preservation and promotion of Yiddish culture through his performances on stage and in films.
People
Moishe + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Moishe as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Moishe: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Moishe?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,127 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Moishe 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 304,130 US residents.
Is Moishe a common name?
We classify Moishe as "Rare". It ranks above 90.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,171 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Moishe most popular?
The single biggest year for Moishe was 2015, when 38 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Moishe is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Moishe in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 926 people with the name Moishe, or 0.31 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,143 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 Moishe 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 Moishe?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Moishe appears almost entirely male. Of the 933 people counted with this name, 99.2% 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 Moishe?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Moishe is White at 96.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (1.5%) and Black (0.9%). 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 Moishe most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Moishe in the 2020 Census, accounting for 96.9% (897 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 Moishe in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Moishe a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Moishe 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 Moishe still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Moishe 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 Moishe 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 Moishe?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Moishe on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.