Isaac
Feminine · “Hebrew Yitzchak”
Isaac is given to boys far more often — 331,508 boys against 784 girls since 1880. See Isaac as a boy name
Isaac means he laughs, and Genesis will not leave the joke alone. Abraham laughs when he is told, Sarah laughs behind the tent door and then denies it, and after the birth she says God has made laughter for me. The name is the punchline of its own story.
How old is the name Isaac?
Isaac first appears in US birth records in 1919 — 106 years ago. The typical Isaac alive today was born around 1993, making them about 32 years old. About 700 people named Isaac are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Isaac most popular?
Isaac peaked in 1946, reaching #3217 nationally. Today it ranks #9457, 6,240 places below that high. See the whole 1946 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yitzchak to Isaac
The story of Isaac
The laughter runs through four chapters. In Genesis 17 Abraham falls on his face and laughs when told that a hundred-year-old man and a ninety-year-old woman will have a son. In Genesis 18 Sarah laughs to herself at the tent door, is asked why she laughed, and says she did not, and the visitor replies that she did. In Genesis 21 the child is born and named Yitzchak, and Sarah says God has made laughter for me, everyone who hears will laugh with me. Then Ishmael is seen laughing, using the same verb, and is sent away. The narrator is not offering an etymology; he is using the name as a thread, and the laughter shifts each time from disbelief to mockery to joy. It is one of the most carefully worked passages of wordplay in the Hebrew Bible.
Meaning
Hebrew Yitzchak, he laughs
Isaac is Hebrew Yitzchak, from a verb meaning to laugh, generally read as he laughs or may God smile. The female entries in the American record are few and most likely represent family surnames given to daughters or transcription. The peak of the female use is 1946.
How the name formed
- Yitzchak
- Isaac
Related forms: Yitzchak · Ishaq · Isaac
Pronouncing Isaac
EYE-zik
Two syllables, stress on the first. Spanish says ee-sah-AK with three. Hebrew Yitzchak has a throat sound English does not have.
Nicknames for Isaac
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
- 1919
- Most girls named
- 200441 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3217reached in 1946
- Change vs 2024
- +66.7%10 in 2025, from 6
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.
Isaac in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Yitzchak in Hebrew — same name
- Ishaq in Arabic — same name
- Isaac in Spanish — same name
Isaacs among us
people named Isaac are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 160,727 born in 2025 was named Isaac
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 Glendine test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Isaac's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Glendine climbed just as high around 1919, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Glendine's path sketches the road Isaac is walking now.
Isaac sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Isaac beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Isaac in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Ike and Izzy are both established short forms.
- The name has an unbroken history of three thousand years.
- It is recognized across three religious traditions.
- It is read as a man's name almost everywhere.
- The female records are few and some are certainly clerical.
- English, Spanish and Hebrew pronounce it quite differently.
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Isaac
Feminine · #9457 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Isaacs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Isaac are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Isaac in 2025?
- Isaac ranks #9457 among US girl names in 2025, with 10 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Isaac?
- About 1 in every 160,727 US girls born in 2025 was named Isaac — 10 in all.
- Will my child share the name Isaac with classmates?
- Isaac will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Isaac
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Leta#9457 · Inga#9457 · Delphia#9457 · Cammie#9457 · Lisandra#9457 · Amee#9457 · Venecia#9457 · Annetta#9457
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Isaac? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Isaac and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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