Yashar
A Hebrew name meaning "upright" or "righteous".
Name Census estimates that about 131 living Americans carry the first name Yashar. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Yashar today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yashar births was 2014 (9 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yashar. 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 Yashar with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
131
~ 1 in 2,616,445 Americans
Peak year
2014
9 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2022 SSA rank
#14,247
Tracked since 1984
Census
Yashar in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 340 people with the first name Yashar, which placed it at #27,081 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
#27,081
National first-name rank
People counted
340
340 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
72.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yashar
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yashar is White at 72.1%. The next largest groups are Black (8.2%) and Two or More Races (7.9%). 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 Yashar 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 Yashar at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White72.1% · 245
- Black or African American8.2% · 28
- Two or more races7.9% · 27
- Hispanic or Latino5.9% · 20
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.6% · 19
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 1
Popularity
Yashar: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yashar from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 42 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Yashar remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yashar 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 Yashar 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 Yashar
The name Yashar has its roots in the Persian language and culture, tracing back to ancient times. It is derived from the Persian word "yasht," which means "to worship" or "to praise." The name is believed to have originated around the 6th century BCE during the Achaemenid Empire, which ruled over a vast territory stretching from the Indus Valley to the Mediterranean Sea.
Yashar was a popular name among the ancient Persians, and it is mentioned in various historical texts and religious scriptures. One notable reference can be found in the Avesta, the sacred text of Zoroastrianism, where the name appears in the form of "Yasna," which is a collection of prayers and hymns.
The earliest recorded example of the name Yashar dates back to the 5th century BCE. One of the most famous individuals bearing this name was Yashar Ibn Barmak, a prominent Persian scholar and vizier who lived during the Abbasid Caliphate in the 9th century CE. He was known for his wisdom, expertise in various fields, and his influential role in the court of the Caliph Harun al-Rashid.
Another notable figure was Yashar al-Qadim, a renowned Persian poet and philosopher who lived in the 10th century CE. He was renowned for his mastery of the Persian language and his contributions to the development of Persian literature and philosophy during the Islamic Golden Age.
In the 11th century CE, Yashar al-Mutanabbi, a celebrated Arab poet, was born in present-day Iraq. He is considered one of the greatest poets in the Arabic language and is famous for his eloquent and powerful verses on various themes, including courage, honor, and the praise of patrons.
Yashar Khan, a prominent Mughal military commander and governor, lived in the 16th century CE. He played a significant role in the expansion and consolidation of the Mughal Empire in South Asia, serving under the renowned Mughal emperors Akbar and Jahangir.
In more recent times, Yashar Kemal was a renowned Turkish novelist, playwright, and short story writer who lived from 1923 to 2015. He was widely acclaimed for his works that depicted the struggles and lives of the rural population in Anatolia, earning him numerous literary awards and recognition both in Turkey and internationally.
People
Yashar + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yashar as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with Y
Other first names starting with Y with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Yashar: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yashar?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 131 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yashar 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 2,616,445 US residents.
Is Yashar a common name?
We classify Yashar as "Very Rare". It ranks above 68.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 133 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yashar most popular?
The single biggest year for Yashar was 2014, when 9 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yashar is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Yashar in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 340 people with the name Yashar, or 0.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #27,081 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 Yashar 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 Yashar?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Yashar leans strongly male. 330 people counted with this name were male (98.8%), compared with 4 female bearers (1.2%). 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 Yashar?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yashar is White at 72.1%. The next largest groups are Black (8.2%) and Two or More Races (7.9%). 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 Yashar most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Yashar in the 2020 Census, accounting for 72.1% (245 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 Yashar in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yashar a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Yashar 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 Yashar still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yashar 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 Yashar 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 Yashar?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.