Issiah
Masculine · “Hebrew "Yahweh is salvation”
Issiah doubles the s of Isaiah, and the doubling is not decorative — it is an attempt to fix a genuine problem. Isaiah has four possible English pronunciations depending on where the syllables break, and a doubled consonant is one of the few tools English has for telling a reader where a word divides.
How old is the name Issiah?
Issiah first appears in US birth records in 1916 — 109 years ago. The typical Issiah alive today was born around 2003, making them about 22 years old. About 1,300 people named Issiah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Issiah most popular?
Issiah peaked in 1998, reaching #1459 nationally. Today it ranks #7194, 5,735 places below that high. See the whole 1998 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From יְשַׁעְיָהוּ (Yeshaʿyahu) to Issiah
The story of Issiah
Isaiah is the first of the major prophets and the book bearing his name is one of the longest and most quoted in the Hebrew Bible. The name became a large American boys' name in the 1990s and 2000s, and respellings followed the way they always do: Isiah, Issiah, Izaiah, Isaias. The doubled s in particular signals a syllable break after the first vowel, giving iss-EYE-uh rather than eye-ZAY-uh. Issiah peaked in 1998, and the choice of spelling records a real decision about how the name should sound.
Meaning
Hebrew "Yahweh is salvation"
From Yeshaʿyahu: yeshaʿ, salvation or deliverance, plus yahu, a short form of the divine name. It is the same construction as Joshua, Jesus and Hosea, all built on the same root for saving. The etymology is settled. Issiah has no separate meaning; it is a respelling.
How the name formed
- יְשַׁעְיָהוּYeshaʿyahu
- Isaiah
- Issiah
Related forms: יְשַׁעְיָהוּ · Isaías · Ἠσαΐας · إشعياء
Pronouncing Issiah
iss-EYE-uh
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. The doubled s marks the syllable break, which is what it is there for. Isaiah alone is often said eye-ZAY-uh with a voiced s, and the two are genuinely different in the mouth.
Nicknames for Issiah
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
- 1916
- Most boys named
- 199877 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1459reached in 1998
- Change vs 2024
- +57.1%11 in 2025, from 7
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.
Issiah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- יְשַׁעְיָהוּ in Hebrew — same name
- Isaías in Spanish — same name
- Ἠσαΐας in Greek — transliteration
- إشعياء in Arabic — same name
Issiahs among us
people named Issiah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 155,280 born in 2025 was named Issiah
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 Gordan test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Issiah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Gordan climbed just as high around 1931, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Gordan's path sketches the road Issiah is walking now.
Issiah 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
Issiah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Issiah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The etymology is settled and the prophet is a major figure in three religions.
- The doubled s resolves a real ambiguity in the standard spelling.
- Izzy and Zay are both easy modern short forms.
- Isaiah is far more common and will be written instead.
- Isiah, Issiah, Izaiah and Isaias all coexist.
- The spelling has to be dictated every time.
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What they receive
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Issiah
Masculine · #7194 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Issiahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,300 people named Issiah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Issiah in 2025?
- Issiah ranks #7194 among US boy names in 2025, with 11 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Issiah?
- About 1 in every 155,280 US boys born in 2025 was named Issiah — 11 in all.
- Will my child share the name Issiah with classmates?
- Issiah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Issiah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Junius#7194 · Orie#7194 · Shade#7194 · Chesley#7194 · Joesph#7194 · Lofton#7194 · Macon#7194 · Benjiman#7194
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Issiah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Issiah and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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