Yishai
Masculine Hebrew name meaning "God exists" or "gift of God".
Name Census estimates that about 409 living Americans carry the first name Yishai. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Yishai today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yishai births was 2023 (25 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yishai. 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.
People living today
409
~ 1 in 838,030 Americans
Peak year
2023
25 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,154
Tracked since 1990
Popularity
Yishai: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yishai from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 144 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Yishai remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yishai 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 Yishai during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Yishais live
Origin
Meaning and history of Yishai
The given name Yishai is a Hebrew name derived from the biblical figure Isai (Hebrew: ישי), who was the father of King David and a resident of Bethlehem. The name Yishai is believed to have originated in the ancient Hebrew language during the time of the united monarchy in ancient Israel, around the 10th century BCE.
The name Yishai is closely related to the Hebrew word "Yesh" (יש), which means "there is" or "to exist". It is thought that the name Yishai may have meant "gift of God" or "God exists". In the Bible, Yishai is mentioned in several books, including 1 Samuel, where he is described as the son of Obed and the father of eight sons, including David, who later became the second king of the united kingdom of Israel and Judah.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Yishai can be found in the Hebrew Bible, where Yishai is mentioned as the father of King David. This would date the earliest usage of the name to around the 10th century BCE.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Yishai. One of the most famous was Yishai ben Avraham (c. 1853 - 1925), a prominent Jewish scholar and author who lived in Ottoman Palestine and published works on Jewish law and philosophy.
Another notable Yishai was Yishai Friedman (1923 - 2009), an Israeli Orthodox rabbi and rosh yeshiva (head of a Talmudic academy) who was known for his expertise in Jewish law and his leadership of the Ponevezh Yeshiva in Israel.
Yishai Oliel (1907 - 1994) was an Israeli politician and member of the Knesset (Israeli parliament) who served as the Minister of Development in the 1960s and worked to establish new settlements in Israel.
Yishai Shner (born 1966) is a contemporary Israeli novelist and playwright who has written several acclaimed works, including the novel "Sunrise Sunset" and the play "The Promised Land".
Yishai Schlissel (born 1975) is an Israeli extremist and convicted criminal who carried out a stabbing attack at the Jerusalem Pride Parade in 2015, injuring several people.
People
Yishai + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yishai 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
Yishai: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yishai?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 409 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yishai 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 838,030 US residents.
Is Yishai a common name?
We classify Yishai as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 413 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yishai most popular?
The single biggest year for Yishai was 2023, when 25 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yishai is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Yishai a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Yishai 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.
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.