Moishy
A Yiddish diminutive form of Moses, meaning "drawn out of water".
Name Census estimates that about 197 living Americans carry the first name Moishy. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Moishy today is around 8 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Moishy births was 2021 (25 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Moishy. 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 Moishy with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
197
~ 1 in 1,739,870 Americans
Peak year
2021
25 babies that year
Average age
8
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,166
Tracked since 2003
Popularity
Moishy: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Moishy from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 102 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Moishy 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 Moishy during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Moishys live
Origin
Meaning and history of Moishy
The given name Moishy is derived from the Hebrew name Moshe, which is the Hebrew version of the name Moses. The name Moses has its origins in the ancient Egyptian language and is believed to be derived from the Egyptian word "mes/mses," meaning "son" or "child." Alternatively, some scholars suggest it may be related to the Egyptian verb "mus," meaning "to be born."
The name Moshe/Moses is a prominent name in the Hebrew Bible, where it refers to the prophet and leader who led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt and received the Ten Commandments from God on Mount Sinai. This biblical figure, who lived around the 13th century BCE, is a central figure in the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic faiths.
The earliest recorded instance of the name Moshe/Moses can be found in the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, which were likely compiled and written down in their current form between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE. The name is also mentioned in various other ancient texts, such as the Quran and the writings of ancient Greek historians like Josephus and Strabo.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals named Moshe/Moses or its variations, such as:
1. Moses ben Maimon (Maimonides), a renowned 12th-century Jewish philosopher, astronomer, and rabbinical scholar (1135-1204 CE).
2. Moses Mendelssohn, a German Jewish philosopher and one of the key figures of the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment) in the 18th century (1729-1786 CE).
3. Moses Montefiore, a British financier and philanthropist who worked to protect and support Jewish communities in the 19th century (1784-1885 CE).
4. Moses Hess, a German philosopher and one of the founders of Labor Zionism in the 19th century (1812-1875 CE).
5. Moses Gaster, a Romanian-born Jewish scholar and researcher of Jewish folklore and literature in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (1856-1939 CE).
The diminutive form "Moishy" is likely a Yiddish or Ashkenazi Jewish variation of the name Moshe, reflecting the influence of Yiddish language and culture on the pronunciation and spelling of Hebrew names among Ashkenazi Jewish communities.
People
Moishy + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Moishy 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
Moishy: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Moishy?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 197 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Moishy 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 1,739,870 US residents.
Is Moishy a common name?
We classify Moishy as "Very Rare". It ranks above 74% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 198 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Moishy most popular?
The single biggest year for Moishy was 2021, when 25 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Moishy is about 8 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
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 Moishy in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Moishy a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Moishy 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 Moishy still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Moishy 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 Moishy 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.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only covers names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files do not have a published Census demographic snapshot. In those cases, the page still shows the SSA trend, gender history, and state data.
How many people are named Moishy?
Want to know how many people share the name Moishy? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.