Yair
Masculine · “he will shine”
Yair is one of the older names still in everyday use: it stands in the Hebrew Bible as the name of a man of Gilead who judged Israel, and of a descendant of Manasseh whose settlements were called Havvoth-Jair, the villages of Jair. In English Bibles that same name became Jair; in modern Hebrew it stayed Yair, two syllables that end on a long, open vowel.
How old is the name Yair?
Yair first appears in US birth records in 1976 — 49 years ago. The typical Yair alive today was born around 2010, making them about 15 years old. About 5,000 people named Yair are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Yair most popular?
Yair peaked in 2006, reaching #705 nationally. Today it ranks #1443, 738 places below that high. See the whole 2006 chart.
Where it comes from
From יָאִיר (Ya'ir) to Yair
The story of Yair
The name is Hebrew, יָאִיר, and it appears in the books of Numbers and Judges, which puts its written record among the oldest of any name a parent can pick today. When Jewish scholars in Alexandria translated the Hebrew scriptures into Greek, it came through as Iaïr; Latin and then English Bibles settled on Jair, which is why the same name is read one way in a church pew and another in a Hebrew classroom. Yair kept going as a living given name in Hebrew and became widespread in Israel in the twentieth century. In the United States it arrives largely through Hebrew-speaking and Latin American families — the Spanish and Portuguese spelling Jair covers much of the same ground — which shows in its concentration in California, Texas and New York.
Meaning
he will shine, he will give light
Built on the Hebrew root אור (or), 'light' — the verbal form meaning 'he will illuminate'.
How the name formed
- יָאִירYa'ir
- IaïrGreek
- JairLatin and English Bibles
- Yair
Related forms: יָאִיר · Jair · Jair · Jair · Yaïr · Iaïr
Pronouncing Yair
yah-EER
Hebrew puts the stress on the second syllable, and that is the usual American pronunciation too. Some English speakers reach first for YAIR, rhyming with 'hair'; the Spanish spelling Jair is said hah-EER.
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
- 1976
- Most boys named
- 2006311 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #705reached in 2006
- Change vs 2024
- −7.5%124 in 2025, from 134
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.
Yair in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- יָאִיר in Hebrew — same name
- Jair in English (Bible) — same name
- Jair in Spanish — spelling variant
- Jair in Portuguese — spelling variant
- Yaïr in French — spelling variant
- Iaïr in Greek — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Yairs among us
people named Yair are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 13,775 born in 2025 was named Yair
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 Cortney test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Yair's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Cortney climbed just as high around 1977, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Cortney's path sketches the road Yair is walking now.
Yair 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 Yair is headed
Yair 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.
Yair beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Yair in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented written history going back to the Hebrew Bible, with an unbroken life as a given name since.
- Short — two syllables, four letters, no silent letters to explain.
- Works in Hebrew, Spanish and Portuguese-speaking families, with Jair as the familiar parallel spelling.
- Familiar rather than everywhere: recognizable to many people without turning up twice in a classroom.
- English speakers who have not met it often guess the pronunciation wrong on sight — either rhyming it with 'hair' or reading the Spanish Jair. A one-time correction, but a lifelong one.
- Yair and Jair are the same name in different scripts, so mail, forms and family members may drift between the two spellings.
- It resists shortening: there is no established nickname in wide use, so it will mostly be said in full.
- Outside Hebrew-speaking and Latin American communities it will usually be the only one in the room, which means a little explaining and no confusion with a classmate.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Yair
Masculine · #1443 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Yairs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,000 people named Yair are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Yair in 2025?
- Yair ranks #1443 among US boy names in 2025, with 124 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Yair?
- About 1 in every 13,775 US boys born in 2025 was named Yair — 124 in all.
- Will my child share the name Yair with classmates?
- Yair will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Yair
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Reyansh#1443 · Hampton#1443 · Ilan#1443 · Khamari#1443 · Nick#1443 · Syair#1443 · Glenn#1443 · Niam#1436
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Yair? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Yair and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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