Isa
Masculine · “Arabic form of the name Jesus”
Isa is given to both — 3,142 boys and 3,433 girls since 1880. See Isa as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Three letters, one of them repeated in sound, and a history that runs through Arabic, Turkish, Bosnian, Hausa and Indonesian without changing shape. Isa is the Quranic name of Jesus, spoken daily by millions for well over a thousand years — and in German, Dutch and Spanish it has quite separately been a short form of Isabel and Isolde. Small on the page, long in the record.
How old is the name Isa?
Isa first appears in US birth records in 1915 — 110 years ago. The typical Isa is a kid of about 9 — this name's wave is very recent. About 3,100 people named Isa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Isa most popular?
Isa peaked in 2025, reaching #929 nationally. Today it ranks #929, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Where it comes from
From Yeshuaʿ to Isa
The story of Isa
The name begins in Hebrew as Yeshuaʿ, passes through Aramaic and Syriac as Ishoʿ, and appears in the Qur'an as ʿĪsā, the prophet Jesus — one of the figures named there most often. From that text it spread with Arabic across North and West Africa, Anatolia, the Balkans and Southeast Asia, staying almost unaltered: Isa in Hausa, İsa in Turkish, Isa in Bosnian and Indonesian. Meanwhile in German, Dutch, Frisian and Scandinavian usage, an unrelated Isa grew up as a clipped form of names beginning Is- — Isabel, Isabella, Isolde — and Spanish speakers shorten Isabel the same way. So two roads meet at one spelling, and in US records the boys' side is the Arabic one.
Meaning
Arabic form of the name Jesus; ultimately from Hebrew Yeshuaʿ, 'God is salvation'
The meaning at the root is agreed. What scholars still argue about is the phonetic route: how Hebrew and Aramaic Yeshuaʿ/Ishoʿ arrived in Arabic with the vowels and consonants of ʿĪsā. That debate touches the sound of the name, not its sense.
How the name formed
- Yeshuaʿ
- Ishoʿ
- ʿĪsā
- Isa
Related forms: عيسى (ʿĪsā) · İsa · Isa · Isa · Yeshua · Jesús
Pronouncing Isa
EE-sah
Arabic and Turkish speakers stress the second syllable, closer to ee-SAA. American English tends toward EE-sah or EE-suh, with the weight up front. In German and Dutch the s often softens to a z sound: EE-zah. All are the same name; it is worth deciding early which one your family answers to.
Nicknames for Isa
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1915
- Most boys named
- 2025253 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #929reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +16.1%253 in 2025, from 218
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Isa in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- عيسى (ʿĪsā) in Arabic — transliteration
- İsa in Turkish — spelling variant
- Isa in Indonesian / Malay — same name
- Isa in Hausa — same name
- Yeshua in Hebrew — related form
- Jesús in Spanish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Texas.
Isas among us
people named Isa are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 6,751 born in 2025 was named Isa
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Erasmo test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Isa's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Erasmo climbed just as high around 1951, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Erasmo's path sketches the road Isa is walking now.
Isa is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Isa is headed
Isa looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 23% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Isa beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Isa in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Three letters, and phonetic once heard — no silent letters, no spelling conventions to explain.
- Travels intact across Arabic, Turkish, Bosnian, Hausa, Indonesian and Swahili usage, which is rare for so short a name.
- Over a millennium of continuous use as the Qur'anic name of the prophet Jesus.
- Works both as a full given name and as a natural short form for Isaac, Isaiah, Ismail or Isabel.
- Rare enough here that most people will meet it for the first time in your child. Expect a lifetime of gentle correction on the stress — EE-sah or ee-SAA — rather than on the spelling.
- In much of continental Europe and in Spanish-speaking countries, Isa reads first as a girl's name, the everyday short form of Isabel. A boy named Isa may be assumed female on paper abroad, though the Arabic name is well known enough that the confusion clears quickly.
- For Muslim families the name carries specific religious weight as a prophet's name, which some welcome and others prefer to keep for a middle name. Worth talking through before the birth certificate.
- Issa, Esa and Eesa all circulate as spellings of the same name, so forms and search results will sometimes point elsewhere.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Isa
Masculine · #929 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Isas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,100 people named Isa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Isa in 2025?
- Isa ranks #929 among US boy names in 2025, with 253 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Isa?
- About 1 in every 6,751 US boys born in 2025 was named Isa — 253 in all.
- Will my child share the name Isa with classmates?
- Isa will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Isa
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Halo#929 · Agastya#929 · Heath#929 · Dillon#929 · Caius#927 · Darian#927 · Kiaan#924 · Judson#934
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Isa? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Isa and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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