Isaiah
Masculine · “the Lord is salvation”
Isaiah is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 254,020 boys against 690 girls since 1880. See Isaiah as a girl name
The oldest complete copy of any book of the Hebrew Bible is a scroll of Isaiah, found in a cave above the Dead Sea in 1947 and written about a century before the common era. It is a thousand years older than anything scholars had before it, and what it showed was how little the text had drifted in all that time. The name belongs to a book that has been read continuously for twenty-seven centuries.
How old is the name Isaiah?
Isaiah was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Isaiah alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 246,000 people named Isaiah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Isaiah most popular?
Isaiah peaked in 2006, reaching #39 nationally. Today it ranks #57, 18 places below that high. See the whole 2006 chart.
Where it comes from
From Yesha'yahu to Isaiah
The story of Isaiah
The book is long, and scholars have argued since the eighteenth century that it is the work of more than one hand: the first thirty-nine chapters belong to Jerusalem in the eighth century before the common era, and the material from chapter forty onward addresses people already in exile in Babylon, two hundred years later. That is not a modern skepticism so much as an observation about who the text speaks to. The name reached English through the Bible, was taken up by Protestants, and became one of the standard American boys' names of the last forty years, charting in Canada as well.
Meaning
the Lord is salvation
From the Hebrew Yesha'yahu, joining a verb meaning to save or deliver to a short form of the divine name. The -iah ending appears across a whole family of prophetic names — Jeremiah, Zechariah, Obadiah, Nehemiah — and it is the same divine element every time, which is why they rhyme.
How the name formed
- Yesha'yahu
- Esaias
- Isaiah
Related forms: Yeshayahu · Isaías · Isaia · Esaias · Isaiya
Pronouncing Isaiah
eye-ZAY-uh
Three syllables, stress in the middle. Spanish says Isaías with four and the weight at the end. The h at the end of the English spelling is silent and represents the Hebrew consonant that closes the divine name.
Nicknames for Isaiah
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 200710,124 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #39reached in 2006
- Change vs 2022
- −3.0%5,267 in 2025, from 5,430
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.
Isaiah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Yeshayahu in Hebrew — transliteration
- Isaías in Spanish — same name
- Isaia in Italian — same name
- Esaias in Greek — transliteration
- Isaiya in Russian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida. International figures from Statistics Canada. Sources
Isaiahs among us
people named Isaiah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 324 born in 2025 was named Isaiah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Isaiah
- #57
- Isaiah on the 2025 chart
- #53
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Isaiah went to 5,267 boys in 2025, but Izaiah and Izayah are the same name said out loud. Together the 8 spellings went to 5,836, which makes it the 53rd most-given boys’ name of the year — 4 places above the chart.
and 5 rarer spellings.
About 1 boy in 293 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 324 for Isaiah itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Craig test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Isaiah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Craig climbed just as high around 1969, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Craig's path sketches the road Isaiah is walking now.
Isaiah 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
Where Isaiah is headed
Isaiah should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Isaiah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Isaiah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It has been in continuous use for something close to three thousand years.
- Zay is a genuinely modern short form and Izzy an old one, so a boy has range.
- It is recognized in Judaism, Christianity and Islam alike.
- The meaning is short, positive and easy to give in four words.
- It has been very heavily used in the last two decades, so a boy will meet others of his age.
- Isaias, Izaiah and Isiah all appear in American records, so the spelling is asked for more often than the standard version suggests.
- Nearly every child given this spelling is a boy; the record's girls are very few.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Isaiah to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Isaiah? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Isaiah
Masculine · #57 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Isaiahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 246,000 people named Isaiah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Isaiah?
- Isaiah is the most-used spelling in US records — 5,267 of the 5,836 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Izaiah and Izayah.
- How popular is the name Isaiah in 2025?
- Isaiah ranks #57 among US boy names in 2025, with 5,267 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Isaiah?
- About 1 in every 324 US boys born in 2025 was named Isaiah — 5,267 in all.
- Will my child share the name Isaiah with classmates?
- Isaiah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Isaiah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Waylon#56 · Caleb#58 · Rowan#59 · Weston#55 · Beau#60 · Josiah#54 · Ezekiel#61 · Logan#53
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Isaiah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Isaiah and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Or jump into a head-to-head
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle