Yeshaya
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "Yahweh is salvation".
Name Census estimates that about 803 living Americans carry the first name Yeshaya. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Yeshaya today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yeshaya births was 2024 (44 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yeshaya. 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 Yeshaya with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
803
~ 1 in 426,842 Americans
Peak year
2024
44 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,904
Tracked since 1976
Census
Yeshaya in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 585 people with the first name Yeshaya, which placed it at #18,434 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
#18,434
National first-name rank
People counted
585
585 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
92.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yeshaya
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yeshaya is White at 92.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (3.2%) and Black (2.7%). 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 Yeshaya 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 Yeshaya at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White92.0% · 538
- Hispanic or Latino3.2% · 19
- Black or African American2.7% · 16
- Two or more races1.9% · 11
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.2% · 1
Popularity
Yeshaya: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yeshaya from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 287 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Yeshaya remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yeshaya 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 Yeshaya during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Yeshayas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. New York, New Jersey, Maryland recorded the most babies named Yeshaya, while Maryland, New Jersey, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 178 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Yeshaya
The name Yeshaya is derived from the Hebrew name Yesha'yahu, which means "Yahweh is salvation" or "the Lord is salvation." The name can be traced back to ancient Israel, where it was a popular name given to boys in biblical times.
Yeshaya is the Hebrew version of the name Isaiah, which is the English transliteration of the same name found in the Old Testament of the Bible. The Book of Isaiah is one of the most significant prophetic books in the Hebrew Bible, and the prophet Isaiah is a major figure in Jewish and Christian religious traditions.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Yeshaya can be found in the Book of Isaiah itself, which is believed to have been written in the 8th century BCE. The prophet Isaiah was a prominent figure during the reign of King Hezekiah of Judah and is revered for his powerful prophecies and teachings.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Yeshaya. One of the most famous was Yeshaya Hurwitz (1560-1630), a renowned Jewish scholar and rabbi who lived in Poland and is known for his influential works on Jewish law and ethics.
Another notable figure was Yeshaya ben Avraham Acharon (1390-1460), a Jewish philosopher and biblical commentator from Spain who wrote extensively on the Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism.
In the 16th century, Yeshaya Soncino (1480-1550) was an Italian Jewish scholar and printer who played a crucial role in the early dissemination of Hebrew literature through his printing press in Italy.
More recently, Yeshaya Leibowitz (1903-1994) was a prominent Israeli philosopher, scientist, and public intellectual known for his influential writings on Jewish philosophy, ethics, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Yeshaya Reinman (1932-2007) was a renowned Orthodox Jewish rabbi and rosh yeshiva (head of a Talmudic academy) who was widely respected for his expertise in Jewish law and his devotion to Torah study.
People
Yeshaya + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yeshaya 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
Yeshaya: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yeshaya?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 803 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yeshaya 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 426,842 US residents.
Is Yeshaya a common name?
We classify Yeshaya as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 814 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yeshaya most popular?
The single biggest year for Yeshaya was 2024, when 44 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yeshaya is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Yeshaya in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 585 people with the name Yeshaya, or 0.19 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #18,434 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 Yeshaya 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 Yeshaya?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Yeshaya leans strongly male. 578 people counted with this name were male (98.0%), compared with 12 female bearers (2.0%). 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 Yeshaya?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yeshaya is White at 92.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (3.2%) and Black (2.7%). 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 Yeshaya most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Yeshaya in the 2020 Census, accounting for 92.0% (538 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 Yeshaya in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yeshaya a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Yeshaya 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 Yeshaya still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yeshaya 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 Yeshaya 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 Americans are named Yeshaya?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.