Isra
Feminine · Arabic roots · “night journey”
Isra is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 1,769 girls against 22 boys since 1880.
Isra names one of the most storied nights in Islamic tradition: al-Isrāʾ, the Night Journey, which gives its title to the seventeenth chapter of the Quran. The word itself is Arabic for traveling by night, and it has been carried out of Arabic into Turkish, Malay, Indonesian and Somali usage. Four letters, two syllables, and a soft landing on that final vowel.
How old is the name Isra?
Isra first appears in US birth records in 1985 — 40 years ago. The typical Isra is a kid of about 8 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,800 people named Isra are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Isra most popular?
Isra peaked in 2025, reaching #1458 nationally. Today it ranks #1458, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From asrā (Arabic, 'to travel by night') to Isra
The story of Isra
The name is Arabic, built on the root s-r-y, which has to do with movement by night. Its fame comes from the opening verse of the Quran's seventeenth surah, which is titled al-Isrāʾ after the Night Journey it describes; Muslim families have drawn given names from surah titles and their key words for centuries. From Arabic the word traveled with Islam into Turkish, where it settled as Esra, and into Malay, Indonesian, Somali and South Asian naming alike. Its arrival in American records is much more recent, and it is spelled here in several ways — Isra, Israa, Esra — depending on which language the family passed it through.
Meaning
night journey; traveling by night
From the Arabic root s-r-y, through the verb asrā, 'to travel by night'. The verbal noun isrāʾ is the name given to the Night Journey recounted in the Quran, and to Surah al-Isrāʾ, its seventeenth chapter.
How the name formed
- asrāArabic, 'to travel by night'
- Isrāʾ / إسراء
- Isra
- Esra
Related forms: إسراء · Esra · Isra · Israa · اسرا
Pronouncing Isra
IS-rah
In English the stress usually falls on the first syllable. Arabic is closer to is-RAA, with a long second vowel and a light glottal catch at the end; both are heard in families that use the name.
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
- 1985
- Most girls named
- 2025147 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1458reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +14.0%147 in 2025, from 129
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.
Isra in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- إسراء in Arabic — transliteration
- Esra in Turkish — related form
- Isra in Indonesian / Malay — same name
- Israa in English (alternate transliteration) — spelling variant
- اسرا in Urdu — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: Minnesota, New York, California.
Isras among us
people named Isra are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 10,934 born in 2025 was named Isra
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Isra
- #1458
- Isra on the 2025 chart
- #788
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Isra went to 147 girls in 2025, but Israa is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 172, which makes it the 788th most-given girls’ name of the year — 670 places above the chart.
- Isra147
- Israa25
About 1 girl in 9,345 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 10,934 for Isra 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 Katey test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Isra's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Katey climbed just as high around 1985, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Katey's path sketches the road Isra is walking now.
Isra 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 Isra is headed
Isra looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 24% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Isra beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Isra in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Short and phonetic — four letters, two syllables, and nothing in the spelling that an English speaker has to guess at.
- A meaning that is settled rather than debated, and tied to a specific, widely known chapter of the Quran.
- Works across Arabic, Turkish, Malay, Indonesian and Somali naming, so it stays sayable in several languages at once.
- Rare in American records while being entirely familiar in much of the world — unusual here without being invented.
- Transliteration means competing spellings: Isra, Israa and Esra all point to the same name, so expect to spell it out and to see it written back to you the other way sometimes.
- English ears may hear Isla, Ezra or a shortened Israel before they hear Isra. A clear first introduction usually fixes it, but it will happen more than once.
- The name refers to a specific event in Islamic scripture. For many families that is exactly the appeal; it is worth knowing the connection is direct and will be recognized by anyone who knows the surah.
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What they receive
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Isra
Feminine · Arabic roots · #1458 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Isras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,800 people named Isra are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Isra?
- Isra is the most-used spelling in US records — 147 of the 172 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Israa.
- How popular is the name Isra in 2025?
- Isra ranks #1458 among US girl names in 2025, with 147 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Isra?
- About 1 in every 10,934 US girls born in 2025 was named Isra — 147 in all.
- Will my child share the name Isra with classmates?
- Isra will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Isra
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Nyra#1458 · Harlem#1458 · Laine#1458 · Rochel#1458 · Emeri#1458 · Elianny#1458 · Avalon#1458 · Addisyn#1458
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Isra? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Isra 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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