Ishmael
Masculine · “God hears”
Ishmael carries one of the oldest sentences in the Hebrew Bible folded into a single word: God hears. It reaches English through Genesis, through the Greek and Latin translators who wrote it Ismaēl, and again through Melville, whose narrator opens Moby-Dick with "Call me Ishmael" — three syllables that have stayed in print ever since.
How old is the name Ishmael?
Ishmael was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Ishmael alive today was born around 2000, making them about 25 years old. About 5,700 people named Ishmael are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ishmael most popular?
Ishmael peaked in 1912, reaching #783 nationally. Today it ranks #1466, 683 places below that high. See the whole 1912 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yishma'el to Ishmael
The story of Ishmael
The name belongs to the book of Genesis, where Ishmael is the son of Abraham and Hagar, named for a promise that his mother's distress had been heard. From Hebrew it passed into the Greek of the Septuagint as Ismaēl, then into Latin and the European vernaculars as Ismael and Ismaël. In Arabic it is Ismail, borne by a prophet of Islam and traditionally counted an ancestor of the Arab peoples — which is why the same name is at home in Cairo, Istanbul, Madrid and Mexico City in slightly different clothes. The English spelling with -sh- follows the Hebrew sound more closely than the Greek did, and it is the form Melville chose in the nineteenth century, fixing it in American reading forever.
Meaning
God hears, or God will hear
From Hebrew Yishma'el, combining the verb shama, to hear, with El, God.
How the name formed
- Yishma'el
- Ismaēl
- Ismael
- Ishmael
Related forms: Ismail · Ismael · İsmail · Ismaël · Yishmael · Izmail
Pronouncing Ishmael
ISH-may-el
Three syllables with the stress on the first. Some families say ISH-mee-uhl or clip it to ISH-mayl; the Spanish Ismael puts the stress at the end, ees-mah-EL, and the Arabic Ismail is ees-mah-EEL.
Nicknames for Ishmael
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
- 2015150 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #783reached in 1912
- Change vs 2023
- +0.8%121 in 2025, from 120
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.
Ishmael in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ismail in Arabic — same name
- Ismael in Spanish — same name
- İsmail in Turkish — same name
- Ismaël in French — same name
- Yishmael in Hebrew — transliteration
- Izmail in Russian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Florida, New York.
Ishmaels among us
people named Ishmael are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 14,116 born in 2025 was named Ishmael
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Ishmael 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 Ishmael is headed
Ishmael should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
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.
Ishmael beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ishmael in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Recognized across Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions, which is rare and makes the name legible to a very wide range of people.
- Has close cousins in Arabic, Spanish, Turkish and French, so it travels without becoming a different name.
- A documented record stretching back more than two thousand years, with the spelling unchanged in English for centuries.
- Comes with a ready short form, Ish, already in use rather than invented on the spot.
- Ismael and Ismail are both common spellings in the US, so expect to spell yours out and to see the -sh- dropped on forms and rosters.
- In Genesis, Ishmael is the son sent away into the wilderness, and Melville's narrator is the lone survivor of a wreck — some readers hear the outsider in the name before anything else.
- "Call me Ishmael" is one of the best-known opening lines in English literature, and your child will hear it quoted, fondly and often.
- Familiar to almost everyone yet rarely met in person — a classroom will likely hold just the one, which some children enjoy and others would rather not.
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What they receive
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Ishmael
Masculine · #1466 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ishmaels are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,700 people named Ishmael are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ishmael in 2025?
- Ishmael ranks #1466 among US boy names in 2025, with 121 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ishmael?
- About 1 in every 14,116 US boys born in 2025 was named Ishmael — 121 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ishmael with classmates?
- Ishmael will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ishmael
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Akiva#1466 · Rodolfo#1466 · Joao#1466 · Jetson#1466 · Monte#1466 · Calloway#1466 · Sire#1466 · Malek#1466
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ishmael? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Ishmael and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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