Issac
Masculine · “he laughs”
Issac is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 24,554 boys against 17 girls since 1880.
Issac is the doubled-s spelling of Isaac, a name carried out of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, Latin, and eventually every corner of the English-speaking world. Spoken aloud it is the same three syllables people have known for centuries — EYE-zik — with the old short form Ike waiting behind it. The extra letter shows up only on paper.
How old is the name Issac?
Issac was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Issac alive today was born around 2004, making them about 21 years old. About 22,000 people named Issac are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Issac most popular?
Issac peaked in 2008, reaching #376 nationally. Today it ranks #915, 539 places below that high. See the whole 2008 chart.
Issac appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Yitzhaq to Issac
The story of Issac
The root name is Hebrew, Yitzhaq, borne by the son of Abraham and Sarah in Genesis and so shared by Judaism, Christianity and Islam alike. Greek translators of the Hebrew scriptures wrote it Isaak, Latin settled on Isaac, and English took that form; it became a steady English given name after the Reformation, when biblical names spread well beyond the clergy. Issac is a variant spelling of that same name, with the s doubled and the a moved — a form that has appeared in English-language records for generations and has held its own place in American birth records since the earliest years they were kept. Nothing about the pronunciation changes with it.
Meaning
he laughs, or he will laugh
The name comes from Hebrew Yitzhaq. In Genesis the laughter belongs to Abraham and Sarah, told in old age that they would have a son; the child was named for their reaction.
How the name formed
- Yitzhaq
- Isaak
- Isaac
- Issac
Related forms: Yitzhak · Ishaq · Isaac · Isacco · Isaak · Yitzchok
Pronouncing Issac
EYE-zik
The doubled s makes no difference to the sound; some speakers end it closer to EYE-zak. Nobody will need the pronunciation explained.
Nicknames for Issac
High
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
- 2007793 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #376reached in 2008
- Change vs 2022
- −34.4%258 in 2025, from 393
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.
Issac in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Yitzhak in Hebrew — transliteration
- Ishaq in Arabic — same name
- Isaac in Spanish — same name
- Isacco in Italian — same name
- Isaak in Russian — same name
- Yitzchok in Yiddish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Issacs among us
people named Issac are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 6,620 born in 2025 was named Issac
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 Alphonso test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Issac's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Alphonso climbed just as high around 1900, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Alphonso's path sketches the road Issac is walking now.
Issac 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 Issac is headed
Issac is easing off slowly — about 17% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
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.
Issac beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Issac in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Sounds identical to Isaac, a name every English speaker already knows how to say and hear.
- Real short forms with long histories: Ike going back centuries, Izzy in everyday use now.
- Cognates in Hebrew, Arabic, Spanish, Italian and Russian, so it travels across languages and faiths.
- A documented record stretching from Genesis through Reformation England to American birth records without a break.
- Familiar without being crowded — a classmate is unlikely to share it.
- The spelling is the smaller of the two by a wide margin. Expect Isaac on forms, in emails and from autocorrect for life, and expect to correct it often.
- Because the two spellings sound exactly alike, the choice only ever shows in writing — worth deciding whether that distinction matters to you or just adds friction.
- The name is easing back from its high point, which means fewer boys carrying it now than a decade or so ago, while it stays entirely recognizable.
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What they receive
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Issac
Masculine · #915 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Issacs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 22,000 people named Issac are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Issac in 2025?
- Issac ranks #915 among US boy names in 2025, with 258 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Issac?
- About 1 in every 6,620 US boys born in 2025 was named Issac — 258 in all.
- Will my child share the name Issac with classmates?
- Issac will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Issac
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Stone#915 · Leif#917 · Makari#917 · Wesson#917 · Ezrah#913 · Beck#913 · Koah#912 · Shmuel#920
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Issac? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Issac and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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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