Yitzhak
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "he will laugh".
Name Census estimates that about 239 living Americans carry the first name Yitzhak. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Yitzhak today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yitzhak births was 2019 (16 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yitzhak. 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
239
~ 1 in 1,434,119 Americans
Peak year
2019
16 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#14,156
Tracked since 1979
Census
Yitzhak in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 332 people with the first name Yitzhak, which placed it at #27,518 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
#27,518
National first-name rank
People counted
332
332 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
64.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yitzhak
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yitzhak is White at 64.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (26.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.3%). 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 Yitzhak 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 Yitzhak at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White64.5% · 214
- Hispanic or Latino26.5% · 88
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.3% · 11
- Two or more races2.7% · 9
- Black or African American2.4% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 2
Popularity
Yitzhak: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yitzhak 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 89 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Yitzhak remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yitzhak 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 Yitzhak 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 Yitzhak
The name Yitzhak is a Hebrew name derived from the biblical figure Isaac, one of the patriarchs of the Israelites. The name is closely tied to the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and has been in use for thousands of years.
The etymology of the name Yitzhak can be traced back to the Hebrew word "Yitzchak," which means "he laughs" or "he will laugh." This name was given to Isaac, the son of Abraham and Sarah, because Sarah laughed in disbelief when she was told by God that she would bear a son in her old age.
The name Yitzhak first appears in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible, also known as the Old Testament. Isaac is a pivotal figure in the biblical narrative, as he was the son of the covenant between God and Abraham, and the father of Jacob, who later became known as Israel.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Yitzhak was Isaac the Blind (1160-1235), a renowned French rabbi and scholar who lived in Provence. He was a leading authority on Jewish law and philosophy and had a significant influence on the development of Kabbalah.
Another notable figure in history with the name Yitzhak was Isaac Newton (1642-1727), the English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, and natural philosopher. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential scientists of all time and is best known for his work on the laws of motion, universal gravitation, and the development of calculus.
In the 19th century, Yitzhak Baer (1888-1980) was a renowned Jewish historian and scholar who specialized in the study of the Iberian Jewish experience. He is considered a pioneer in the field of Sephardic studies and made significant contributions to the understanding of Jewish life in Spain and Portugal during the Middle Ages.
Yitzhak Rabin (1922-1995) was an Israeli politician and military leader who served as the fifth Prime Minister of Israel. He was a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in achieving a peace settlement between Israelis and Palestinians in the Oslo Accords.
In the realm of literature, Yitzhak Bashevis Singer (1902-1991) was a Polish-American writer and Nobel laureate in Literature. He was known for his short stories and novels, which often explored the lives of Jewish communities in Poland and the impact of the Holocaust.
These are just a few examples of the many notable individuals throughout history who have borne the name Yitzhak, a name that has its roots in the biblical narrative and has been carried on for generations across various cultures and religious traditions.
People
Yitzhak + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yitzhak 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
Yitzhak: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yitzhak?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 239 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yitzhak 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 1,434,119 US residents.
Is Yitzhak a common name?
We classify Yitzhak as "Very Rare". It ranks above 76.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 242 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yitzhak most popular?
The single biggest year for Yitzhak was 2019, when 16 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yitzhak is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Yitzhak in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 332 people with the name Yitzhak, or 0.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #27,518 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 Yitzhak 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 Yitzhak?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Yitzhak appears almost entirely male. Of the 334 people counted with this name, 99.1% 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 Yitzhak?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yitzhak is White at 64.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (26.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.3%). 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 Yitzhak most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Yitzhak in the 2020 Census, accounting for 64.5% (214 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 Yitzhak in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yitzhak a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Yitzhak 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 Yitzhak still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yitzhak 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 Yitzhak 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 share the name Yitzhak?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.