Izrael
Masculine · “he who struggles with God”
Izrael is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 1,243 boys against 15 girls since 1880.
Izrael respells Israel — he who struggles with God — the name Jacob is given after wrestling all night.
How old is the name Izrael?
Izrael first appears in US birth records in 1994 — 31 years ago. The typical Izrael is a kid of about 9 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,200 people named Izrael are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Izrael most popular?
Izrael peaked in 2023, reaching #1787 nationally. Today it ranks #2421, 634 places below that high. See the whole 2023 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From sarah El to Izrael
The story of Izrael
Jacob wrestles a stranger until dawn, is injured, refuses to release him without a blessing, and is renamed — and the text never says clearly who he fought. The whole people takes the name. Izrael is a Polish and modern spelling and appears in American records in current use.
Meaning
he who struggles with God
From the Hebrew Yisra'el — sarah, 'to struggle' or 'contend', and El, 'God'. Genesis 32 gives the naming explicitly: you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed. The Hebrew is transparent and the reading undisputed.
How the name formed
- sarah El
- Yisra'el
- Israel
- Izrael
Related forms: Israel · Izrael · ישראל
Pronouncing Izrael
IZ-ray-el
Three syllables, stress on the first. Hebrew Yisrael stresses the last.
Nicknames for Izrael
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
- 1994
- Most boys named
- 202390 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1787reached in 2023
- Change vs 2024
- +7.7%56 in 2025, from 52
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.
Izrael in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Israel in English — spelling variant
- Izrael in Polish — same name
- ישראל in Hebrew — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Arizona.
Izraels among us
people named Izrael are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 30,501 born in 2025 was named Izrael
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Izrael
- #2421
- Izrael on the 2025 chart
- #292
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Izrael went to 56 boys in 2025, but Israel is the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 1,142, which makes it the 292nd most-given boys’ name of the year — 2,129 places above the chart.
- Israel1,081
- Izrael56
and 1 rarer spelling.
About 1 boy in 1,496 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 30,501 for Izrael 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 Eliud test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Izrael's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Eliud climbed just as high around 1975, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Eliud's path sketches the road Izrael is walking now.
Izrael 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 Izrael is headed
Izrael should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low 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.
Izrael beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Izrael in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- That the text never identifies who Jacob wrestled is a first-rate ambiguity.
- The struggles-with-God meaning is unusually active for a name.
- Izzy is available as a short form with a real record.
- It is a country name as well as a personal one, with all that carries.
- Israel is the standard English spelling.
- The z will be corrected by other people constantly.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Izrael 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 Izrael? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Izrael
Masculine · #2421 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Izraels are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,200 people named Izrael are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Izrael?
- Izrael is one of 2 recorded spellings. Israel is the more common one — 1,081 births in 2025 against 56 for Izrael.
- How popular is the name Izrael in 2025?
- Izrael ranks #2421 among US boy names in 2025, with 56 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Izrael?
- About 1 in every 30,501 US boys born in 2025 was named Izrael — 56 in all.
- Will my child share the name Izrael with classmates?
- Izrael will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Izrael
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Idrees#2421 · Rahmir#2421 · Jin#2421 · Fitzgerald#2421 · Woodson#2421 · Pranav#2421 · Domenico#2421 · Darnell#2421
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Izrael? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Izrael 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.
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. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle