Isabela
Isabela was given to 426 girls in 2025, #664 among girls’ names; 12,698 Americans have been recorded with it since 1982 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 12,600 Americans named Isabela and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 16 years old and half are between 8 and 22.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Isabela by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Isabela mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Isabela is “a female given name from Spanish.”
Borrowed from Spanish Isabela. Doublet of Isabelle.
/ʔɪ.sɐˈbɛ.lɐ/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Isabela?
#664 among girls’ names, 2025
Isabela rose from #764 in 2015 to #664 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.21 to 0.27 per 1,000.
695 babies in 2004, the peak
Isabela peaked in 2004, when 695 girls were given it, #442 among girls’ names. The 426 births of 2025 are 61% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 426 | #664 | 0.27 |
| 2024 | 456 | #644 | 0.28 |
| 2023 | 446 | #660 | 0.28 |
| 2022 | 510 | #589 | 0.31 |
| 2021 | 330 | #836 | 0.20 |
| 2020 | 328 | #835 | 0.20 |
| 2019 | 357 | #776 | 0.21 |
| 2018 | 332 | #817 | 0.20 |
| 2017 | 336 | #812 | 0.19 |
| 2016 | 351 | #814 | 0.20 |
Every recorded year (43)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 370 | #764 | 0.21 |
| 2014 | 389 | #721 | 0.22 |
| 2013 | 427 | #670 | 0.24 |
| 2012 | 462 | #620 | 0.26 |
| 2011 | 426 | #665 | 0.24 |
| 2010 | 511 | #571 | 0.29 |
| 2009 | 623 | #493 | 0.34 |
| 2008 | 575 | #535 | 0.30 |
| 2007 | 634 | #504 | 0.33 |
| 2006 | 676 | #468 | 0.36 |
| 2005 | 539 | #534 | 0.29 |
| 2004 | 695 | #442 | 0.38 |
| 2003 | 610 | #483 | 0.33 |
| 2002 | 403 | #633 | 0.22 |
| 2001 | 322 | #742 | 0.18 |
| 2000 | 259 | #849 | 0.14 |
| 1999 | 223 | #938 | 0.13 |
| 1998 | 157 | #1,184 | 0.09 |
| 1997 | 115 | #1,441 | 0.07 |
| 1996 | 82 | #1,796 | 0.05 |
| 1995 | 75 | #1,864 | 0.04 |
| 1994 | 59 | #2,230 | 0.03 |
| 1993 | 46 | #2,646 | 0.03 |
| 1992 | 29 | #3,707 | 0.02 |
| 1991 | 28 | #3,750 | 0.01 |
| 1990 | 32 | #3,382 | 0.02 |
| 1989 | 19 | #4,728 | 0.01 |
| 1988 | 6 | #10,846 | under 0.01 |
| 1987 | 8 | #8,265 | under 0.01 |
| 1985 | 6 | #9,743 | under 0.01 |
| 1984 | 7 | #8,479 | under 0.01 |
| 1983 | 7 | #8,347 | under 0.01 |
| 1982 | 6 | #9,638 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Isabela a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Isabela has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 43 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Isabela: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Isabela, and how old are they?
12,600 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 12,698 Americans ever recorded as Isabela. The median Isabela alive today is 16 years old; half are between 8 and 22.
The 2020 Census counted 13,178 people named Isabela (13,158 women and girls, 20 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 10,203 born in the U.S. The Census count is 29% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 401 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 7,160 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 5,030 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Isabela born?
The states with the most babies named Isabela are California, Texas and Florida, with 42% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 62 | #534 | 1.4× |
| Texas | 54 | #587 | 1.3× |
| Florida | 45 | #420 | 1.7× |
| New York | 25 | #667 | 0.9× |
| Illinois | 18 | #554 | 1.1× |
| North Carolina | 16 | #642 | 0.7× |
| New Jersey | 15 | #513 | 1.2× |
| Georgia | 14 | #725 | 0.8× |
| Virginia | 12 | #626 | 0.7× |
| Connecticut | 11 | #287 | 1.2× |
Where Isabela is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Isabela is most over-represented in Florida: since 1982 it was given 1.7 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Isabela with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 540,692 babies since 1880, Isabela is the third most given (2.3% of them). In 2025 it was given to 426 of their 12,965 babies (3.3%), again the third most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Isabela
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Isabela and names like it
- Compare Isabela and IsabellaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sIsabela peaked in 2004.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Isabela since 1910.
- Spanish namesWiktionary’s origin for Isabela: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2004The year the most babies were named Isabela.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Isabela alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with IMost given first.