Yesh
An Indian Hindu name meaning "Lord" or "God".
Name Census estimates that about 10 living Americans carry the first name Yesh. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Yesh today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yesh births was 2000 (5 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yesh. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Yesh. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
10
~ 1 in 34,275,434 Americans
Peak year
2000
5 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2009 SSA rank
#14,451
Tracked since 2000
Popularity
Yesh: popularity over time
Babies born per year
Decades
Yesh 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 Yesh during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000s | 10 | 0 | 10 |
Origin
Meaning and history of Yesh
The name Yesh has its origins in the Hebrew language and culture, tracing back to ancient times. It is derived from the Hebrew root word "yesh," which means "there is" or "there exists." This root word is found in various forms throughout the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) and Jewish liturgy.
One of the earliest recorded references to the name Yesh can be found in the Book of Genesis, where it is mentioned as the name of a place. In Genesis 14:5, it is written, "And in the fourteenth year came Chedorlaomer and the kings that were with him, and smote the Rephaim in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzim in Ham, and the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim, and the Horites in their mount Seir, unto El-paran, which is by the wilderness." The word "Shaveh" in "Shaveh-kiriathaim" is believed to be derived from the same root as Yesh.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Yesh or variations of it. One of the earliest recorded figures was Yesh'ayahu ben Avraham Aharon Halevi Horowitz, also known as the Shelah HaKadosh (1565-1630), a renowned Talmudic scholar and Kabbalist from Prague.
Another notable figure was Yesh'ayahu Halevi Horowitz (1558-1628), a renowned Rabbi and author of the influential work "Shenei Luchot HaBrit" (The Two Tablets of the Covenant). He was a prominent figure in the Jewish community of Prague during the late 16th and early 17th centuries.
In the 19th century, there was Yesh'ayahu Aharon Halevi Horowitz (1818-1899), a prominent Hasidic Rabbi and author from Stropkov, Slovakia. He wrote several works on Hasidic thought and Jewish law.
Another notable individual was Yesh'ayahu Leibowitz (1903-1994), an Israeli public intellectual, biochemist, and outspoken critic of religious fundamentalism. He was a prominent voice in the discourse on religion and science in Israel during the 20th century.
More recently, Yesh'ayahu Leibowitz (1941-2020) was an Israeli-American mathematician and computer scientist, known for his contributions to the field of theoretical computer science and his work on proving the existence of universal traversal sequences.
It's important to note that while the name Yesh has its roots in the Hebrew language and Jewish culture, it may have been adopted and used in other cultures and languages as well, potentially with variations in spelling and pronunciation.
People
Yesh + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yesh 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
Yesh: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yesh?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 10 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yesh 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 34,275,434 US residents.
Is Yesh a common name?
We classify Yesh as "Very Rare". It ranks above 28.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 10 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yesh most popular?
The single biggest year for Yesh was 2000, when 5 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yesh is about 21 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 Yesh in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yesh a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Yesh 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 Yesh still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yesh 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 Yesh 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 Americans are named Yesh?
See how many people have the name Yesh on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.