Head to head · Boys' names
Israel vs Sullivan
#315 vs #314 in 2025
Sullivan is a whisker ahead (#314 vs #315 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Sullivan is climbing the charts fast, Israel is stepping back from its peak.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
The tape is even: Israel and Sullivan each lead 3 measures of 6.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1880s: Israel #395, Sullivan #777 — Israel higher
- 1890s: Israel #500, Sullivan #805 — Israel higher
- 1900s: Israel #506, Sullivan #836 — Israel higher
- 1910s: Israel #478, Sullivan #1812 — Israel higher
- 1920s: Israel #608, Sullivan #2275 — Israel higher
- 1930s: Israel #689, Sullivan #2334 — Israel higher
- 1940s: Israel #663, Sullivan #2173 — Israel higher
- 1950s: Israel #539, Sullivan #2295 — Israel higher
- 1960s: Israel #483, Sullivan #3067 — Israel higher
- 1970s: Israel #334, Sullivan #3831 — Israel higher
- 1980s: Israel #321, Sullivan #4492 — Israel higher
- 1990s: Israel #279, Sullivan #1858 — Israel higher
- 2000s: Israel #225, Sullivan #941 — Israel higher
- 2010s: Israel #236, Sullivan #468 — Israel higher
- 2020s: Israel #254, Sullivan #358 — Israel higher
Israel stood higher in every recorded decade — 15 of 15.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Israel | Sullivan |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #395 | #777 |
| 1890s | #500 | #805 |
| 1900s | #506 | #836 |
| 1910s | #478 | #1812 |
| 1920s | #608 | #2275 |
| 1930s | #689 | #2334 |
| 1940s | #663 | #2173 |
| 1950s | #539 | #2295 |
| 1960s | #483 | #3067 |
| 1970s | #334 | #3831 |
| 1980s | #321 | #4492 |
| 1990s | #279 | #1858 |
| 2000s | #225 | #941 |
| 2010s | #236 | #468 |
| 2020s | #254 | #358 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Israel
"he strives with God" or "God contends"
The name joins a Hebrew root meaning to strive or contend with El, God. Genesis reads it as the human striving: Jacob is told he has struggled with God and with men and prevailed. Many Semitic scholars read the grammar the other way, with God as the one who contends or rules. Both readings are old and serious, and neither has pushed the other out.
Yisra'el (Hebrew) → Israēl (Greek) → Israel (Latin) → Israel (English, Spanish)
How it traveled
The name appears in Genesis, where Jacob wrestles through the night at the ford of the Jabbok and is given the new name Israel; his descendants become the twelve tribes, and the name passes from a person to a people to a land. Greek translators of the Hebrew Bible wrote it Israēl, Latin kept it, and it reached English unaltered — one of the few biblical names that never needed reshaping.
Sullivan
From Irish Ó Súilleabháin, 'descendant of Súilleabhán' — a name built on súil, 'eye'
Everyone agrees on the first element: súil, the Irish word for eye. The second is where scholars part ways. The common reading takes it as dubh, 'black' or 'dark', giving 'dark-eyed one'. Others have read the name as 'one-eyed' or 'hawk-eyed'. The eye is certain; what is being said about it is not.
Súilleabhán → Ó Súilleabháin → O'Sullivan → Sullivan
How it traveled
Sullivan is the anglicized form of Ó Súilleabháin, the surname of a sept that held land in Tipperary before the Norman arrival in the twelfth century and afterwards pushed south-west into Cork and Kerry, where the O'Sullivan Beare branch ruled the Beara peninsula. It became one of the most numerous surnames in Ireland, and Irish emigration carried it in quantity to the United States, where the O' was widely dropped.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Israel
IZ-ree-uhl
The common English pronunciation; IZ-ray-el is also heard. In Spanish it is ees-rrah-EL, with the stress on the last syllable. A household that uses both languages will hear both, and neither is a correction of the other.
- Izzy — The usual informal English short form; also serves Isaac, Isaiah, Isabel and Isadora, so it rarely points to one name alone.
- Isra — The standard short form in Spanish-speaking use, common among friends and family.
- Iz — Clipped and casual, mostly spoken rather than written.
- Srulik — A Yiddish diminutive of Yisroel, used in Yiddish-speaking and Israeli contexts rather than general American ones.
Sullivan
SUL-uh-vun
Three syllables, stress on the first. The middle vowel is a light one and often disappears in fast speech, leaving something close to SUL-vun. Double L in the spelling, single V.
- Sully — The default short form, used from the playground upward; also stands on its own as a surname and occasionally as a given name.
- Sull — A clipped, informal version, mostly heard among friends and teammates rather than family.
- Van — Taken from the end of the name rather than the start; less common, and doubles as an independent given name.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Israel if you want…
- a name past its most crowded yearsIsrael is stepping back from its peak
- a long American recordIsrael was already in use when US records began in 1880
Choose Sullivan if you want…
- a name on the way upup 84 places on the charts in five years
- a newer arrivalSullivan entered the US charts in 1884
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Israel
Strengths
- Spelled one way everywhere — no one has to ask which version, and it looks the same in English, Spanish and Portuguese.
- Present in American records for as long as such records have been kept, without a break.
- Has real short forms already in use: Izzy in English, Isra in Spanish.
To consider
- Israel is also the name of a modern country, and a politically charged one. That association follows the name in the news and in conversation, and it is worth deciding in advance how you feel about answering questions about it.
- The English and Spanish pronunciations are genuinely different, and a child may spend some time deciding which one they use with whom — or simply answering to both.
- Izzy is shared with several other names, so the nickname will not identify him the way the full name does.
Sullivan
Strengths
- The spelling is already familiar to almost everyone as a surname, so it is read correctly on sight and rarely needs to be spelled out.
- Sully is a ready-made short form with a long history behind it, so the name works at full length and at speed.
- Documented in American records since the nineteenth century — long enough to have a track record, without ever having been a crowd.
To consider
- It reads as a surname first. Expect forms, rosters and teachers to occasionally flip it into the last-name field, and expect the odd 'and your first name?' in reply.
- The Irish-family association is strong and specific. Some families love that; others may find it makes a claim about ancestry they had not meant to make.
- It is currently rising rather than settled, which means a child named Sullivan today will likely be the only one in the class but may not be the only one in the generation.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Israel and Sullivan in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
Still torn between Israel and Sullivan?
Put both to the vote.
One link to your partner, your parents, your sister. Each of them gets the two names, a one-tap answer and room to say why — and every reply lands in one place.
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More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists that carry both names
Every list here names both Israel and Sullivan — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Israel or Sullivan — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Israel or Sullivan?
- Sullivan, in 2025: Sullivan ranked #314 with 1,083 babies; Israel ranked #315 with 1,081 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Israel or Sullivan?
- Sullivan. Over the last five years Israel moved down 78 places; Sullivan moved up 84 places.
- Which is the older name, Israel or Sullivan?
- Israel was already in use when US records began in 1880; Sullivan entered the US charts in 1884. On the American record, Israel is the older name.
- How many people are named Israel and Sullivan?
- About 65,000 people named Israel are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 15,000 people named Sullivan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Israels or Sullivans in the classroom?
- Israel will almost certainly be the only one in school. Sullivan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
Keep playing
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