Isao
Isao was last recorded in 2016, when 5 babies were given it; 246 Americans have been recorded with it between 1915 and 2016 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Isao by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Isao?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #12,959, in 2016; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
20 babies in 1925, the peak
Isao peaked in 1925, when 20 boys were given it, #1,770 among boys’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 5 | #12,959 | 2.6 |
| 1944 | 5 | #3,648 | 3.7 |
| 1938 | 7 | #3,011 | 6.3 |
| 1935 | 5 | #3,906 | 4.8 |
| 1934 | 5 | #3,916 | 4.8 |
| 1933 | 6 | #3,451 | 6.1 |
| 1932 | 6 | #3,556 | 5.7 |
| 1930 | 9 | #2,877 | 8.2 |
| 1929 | 10 | #2,679 | 9.3 |
| 1928 | 9 | #2,943 | 8.1 |
Every recorded year (23)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1927 | 9 | #3,019 | 8.0 |
| 1926 | 12 | #2,487 | 10.8 |
| 1925 | 20 | #1,770 | 17.9 |
| 1924 | 13 | #2,404 | 11.5 |
| 1923 | 14 | #2,274 | 12.8 |
| 1922 | 18 | #1,925 | 16.5 |
| 1921 | 15 | #2,203 | 13.6 |
| 1920 | 8 | #3,347 | 7.5 |
| 1919 | 19 | #1,777 | 19.4 |
| 1918 | 10 | #2,779 | 9.9 |
| 1917 | 18 | #1,778 | 19.4 |
| 1916 | 11 | #2,459 | 12.4 |
| 1915 | 12 | #2,238 | 14.1 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Isao a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Isao has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 23 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Isao: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Isao, and how old are they?
An estimated 12 Americans named Isao and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026, too few to state an age range. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 314 people named Isao (3 women and girls, 311 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 23 born in the U.S. The Census count is 13.7 times 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.
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 38,145 babies since 1880, Isao is the seventh most given (<1% of them). In 2025 none of their 493 babies recorded by SSA was a Isao (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
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 Isao
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 Isao and names like it
- Compare Isao and IsiahBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1920sIsao peaked in 1925.
- Hawaii’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Isao since 1910.
- The top names of 1925The year the most babies were named Isao.
- Names starting with IMost given first.