Isael
Isael was given to 231 boys in 2025, #989 among boys’ names; 3,164 Americans have been recorded with it since 1978 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 3,120 Americans named Isael and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 12 years old and half are between 4 and 21.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Isael by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Isael?
#989 among boys’ names, 2025
Isael rose from #1,939 in 2015 to #989 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.04 to 0.14 per 1,000.
244 babies in 2024, the peak
Isael peaked in 2024, when 244 boys were given it, #944 among boys’ names. The 231 births of 2025 are 95% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 231 | #989 | 0.14 |
| 2024 | 244 | #944 | 0.14 |
| 2023 | 203 | #1,068 | 0.12 |
| 2022 | 178 | #1,160 | 0.10 |
| 2021 | 156 | #1,231 | 0.09 |
| 2020 | 121 | #1,430 | 0.07 |
| 2019 | 83 | #1,830 | 0.05 |
| 2018 | 78 | #1,905 | 0.04 |
| 2017 | 76 | #1,903 | 0.04 |
| 2016 | 75 | #1,946 | 0.04 |
Every recorded year (44)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 75 | #1,939 | 0.04 |
| 2014 | 70 | #2,026 | 0.04 |
| 2013 | 69 | #1,996 | 0.04 |
| 2012 | 101 | #1,565 | 0.05 |
| 2011 | 94 | #1,623 | 0.05 |
| 2010 | 99 | #1,592 | 0.05 |
| 2009 | 103 | #1,575 | 0.05 |
| 2008 | 96 | #1,623 | 0.05 |
| 2007 | 115 | #1,419 | 0.06 |
| 2006 | 90 | #1,608 | 0.04 |
| 2005 | 102 | #1,445 | 0.05 |
| 2004 | 87 | #1,532 | 0.04 |
| 2003 | 88 | #1,482 | 0.04 |
| 2002 | 56 | #1,981 | 0.03 |
| 2001 | 56 | #1,937 | 0.03 |
| 2000 | 56 | #1,878 | 0.03 |
| 1999 | 37 | #2,418 | 0.02 |
| 1998 | 58 | #1,748 | 0.03 |
| 1997 | 33 | #2,471 | 0.02 |
| 1996 | 33 | #2,394 | 0.02 |
| 1995 | 26 | #2,790 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 24 | #2,976 | 0.01 |
| 1993 | 22 | #3,078 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 20 | #3,263 | 0.01 |
| 1991 | 17 | #3,519 | 0.01 |
| 1990 | 18 | #3,362 | 0.01 |
| 1989 | 10 | #4,958 | under 0.01 |
| 1988 | 9 | #4,948 | under 0.01 |
| 1987 | 13 | #3,604 | 0.01 |
| 1985 | 8 | #4,870 | under 0.01 |
| 1984 | 6 | #5,873 | under 0.01 |
| 1983 | 10 | #3,981 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 13 | #3,325 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 5 | #6,189 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Isael a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Isael has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 44 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Isael: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Isael, and how old are they?
3,120 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 3,164 Americans ever recorded as Isael. The median Isael alive today is 12 years old; half are between 4 and 21.
The 2020 Census counted 2,665 people named Isael (29 women and girls, 2,636 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,037 born in the U.S. The Census count is 31% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 17 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 207 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,250 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,650 |
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 Isael born?
The states with the most babies named Isael are California, Texas and Arizona, with 65% of its births recorded by state in 2025; Arizona is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 59 | #526 | 1.9× |
| Texas | 48 | #634 | 2.1× |
| Arizona | 17 | #437 | 2.0× |
| Colorado | 11 | #514 | 0.6× |
| Florida | 9 | #1,293 | 0.6× |
| Washington | 9 | #707 | 0.7× |
| New York | 7 | #1,481 | 0.5× |
| Pennsylvania | 7 | #1,040 | 0.1× |
| Oklahoma | 7 | #583 | 0.3× |
| Illinois | 6 | #1,190 | 0.4× |
Where Isael is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Isael is most over-represented in Texas: since 1978 it was given 2.1 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 boys’ 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 Isael 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 3 names spelled alike, given to 3,392 babies since 1880, Isael is the most given (93% of them). In 2025 it was given to 231 of their 231 babies (100%), again the 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 Isael
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 Isael and names like it
- Compare Isael and IsaulBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sIsael peaked in 2024.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Isael since 1910.
- The top names of 2024The year the most babies were named Isael.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Isael alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with IMost given first.