Yisroel
A masculine Hebrew name derived from "Israel" meaning "he who struggles with God".
Name Census estimates that about 6,383 living Americans carry the first name Yisroel. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Yisroel today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yisroel births was 2019 (251 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yisroel. 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 Yisroel with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
6.4K
~ 1 in 53,698 Americans
Peak year
2019
251 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2024 SSA rank
#950
Tracked since 1950
Census
Yisroel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,404 people with the first name Yisroel, which placed it at #4,306 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
#4,306
National first-name rank
People counted
4.4K
4,404 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
98.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yisroel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yisroel is White at 98.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (0.5%) and Two or More Races (0.3%). 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 Yisroel 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 Yisroel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White98.8% · 4,352
- Hispanic or Latino0.5% · 21
- Two or more races0.3% · 12
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.2% · 11
- Black or African American0.2% · 8
Popularity
Yisroel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yisroel from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 2,056 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Yisroel remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yisroel 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 Yisroel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Yisroels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 8 states and territories. New York, New Jersey, California recorded the most babies named Yisroel, while Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 722 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Yisroel
The name Yisroel is a Hebrew name derived from the biblical figure Yaakov, also known as Jacob. It is a variation of the name Yisrael, which translates to "one who struggles with God" or "champion of God." The name has its roots in the Hebrew Bible, specifically in the book of Genesis, where Yaakov is given the additional name Yisrael after wrestling with an angel of God.
The origin of the name Yisroel can be traced back to ancient Israel, where it was used among the Jewish community. It is believed that the name gained prominence during the time of the Babylonian exile, when the Jewish people sought to preserve their cultural and religious identity through the use of traditional Hebrew names.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Yisroel is found in the Talmud, a central text of Rabbinic Judaism dating back to around the 3rd century CE. The Talmud mentions several individuals bearing the name, including Rabbi Yisroel ben Eliezer, a prominent Talmudic scholar who lived in the 2nd century CE.
Throughout history, there have been several notable figures named Yisroel. One of the most famous was Yisroel ben Eliezer, also known as the Baal Shem Tov (1698-1760), the founder of the Hasidic movement in Judaism. His teachings and spiritual leadership had a profound impact on Jewish thought and practice.
Another influential figure was Yisroel Meir Kagan (1838-1933), a prominent rabbi and scholar who authored the influential work "Mishnah Berurah," a comprehensive commentary on Jewish law.
In the modern era, Yisroel Kristal (1903-2017) gained recognition as the world's oldest living man at the age of 113. He was a Holocaust survivor who witnessed the horrors of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Yisroel Amir (born 1970) is a former Israeli law student who gained notoriety for assassinating Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, an act that shook the nation and had far-reaching political implications.
Yisroel Ariel (1939-2022) was an Israeli rabbi and religious leader who founded the Temple Institute, an organization dedicated to rebuilding the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem and reviving ancient Jewish practices.
While the name Yisroel has its roots in ancient Hebrew culture, it continues to be a popular name among Jewish communities around the world, carrying with it a rich history and symbolism that reflects the struggles, resilience, and faith of the Jewish people.
People
Yisroel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yisroel 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
Yisroel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yisroel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 6,383 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yisroel 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 53,698 US residents.
Is Yisroel a common name?
We classify Yisroel as "Rare". It ranks above 97% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 6,506 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yisroel most popular?
The single biggest year for Yisroel was 2019, when 251 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yisroel is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Yisroel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,404 people with the name Yisroel, or 1.46 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,306 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 Yisroel 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 Yisroel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Yisroel appears almost entirely male. Of the 4,413 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Yisroel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yisroel is White at 98.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (0.5%) and Two or More Races (0.3%). 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 Yisroel most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Yisroel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 98.8% (4,352 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 Yisroel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yisroel a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Yisroel 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 Yisroel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yisroel 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 Yisroel 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 Yisroel as a first name?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Yisroel, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.