Ismail
Ismail was given to 204 boys in 2025, #1,065 among boys’ names; 4,022 Americans have been recorded with it since 1962 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 3,940 Americans named Ismail and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 14 years old and half are between 8 and 25.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Ismail by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Ismail mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Ismail is “a male given name from Arabic.”
Also “a transliteration of the Macedonian or Russian male given name Исмаил (Ismail).”
From Arabic إِسْمَاعِيل (ʔismāʕīl). Doublet of Ishmael.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Ismail?
#1,065 among boys’ names, 2025
Ismail rose from #1,177 in 2015 to #1,065 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.08 to 0.12 per 1,000.
204 babies in 2025, the peak
Ismail peaked in 2025, when 204 boys were given it, #1,065 among boys’ names. In 2024 it went to 163 boys.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 204 | #1,065 | 0.12 |
| 2024 | 163 | #1,232 | 0.09 |
| 2023 | 132 | #1,398 | 0.08 |
| 2022 | 122 | #1,485 | 0.07 |
| 2021 | 121 | #1,485 | 0.07 |
| 2020 | 130 | #1,363 | 0.08 |
| 2019 | 114 | #1,501 | 0.06 |
| 2018 | 158 | #1,196 | 0.09 |
| 2017 | 148 | #1,240 | 0.08 |
| 2016 | 171 | #1,131 | 0.09 |
Every recorded year (58)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 158 | #1,177 | 0.08 |
| 2014 | 136 | #1,301 | 0.07 |
| 2013 | 135 | #1,289 | 0.07 |
| 2012 | 116 | #1,435 | 0.06 |
| 2011 | 119 | #1,398 | 0.06 |
| 2010 | 94 | #1,661 | 0.05 |
| 2009 | 104 | #1,565 | 0.05 |
| 2008 | 85 | #1,767 | 0.04 |
| 2007 | 101 | #1,557 | 0.05 |
| 2006 | 103 | #1,481 | 0.05 |
| 2005 | 69 | #1,857 | 0.03 |
| 2004 | 80 | #1,617 | 0.04 |
| 2003 | 85 | #1,517 | 0.04 |
| 2002 | 85 | #1,486 | 0.04 |
| 2001 | 80 | #1,513 | 0.04 |
| 2000 | 68 | #1,686 | 0.03 |
| 1999 | 65 | #1,642 | 0.03 |
| 1998 | 69 | #1,547 | 0.04 |
| 1997 | 64 | #1,583 | 0.03 |
| 1996 | 53 | #1,748 | 0.03 |
| 1995 | 52 | #1,712 | 0.03 |
| 1994 | 51 | #1,735 | 0.03 |
| 1993 | 57 | #1,576 | 0.03 |
| 1992 | 35 | #2,186 | 0.02 |
| 1991 | 56 | #1,544 | 0.03 |
| 1990 | 42 | #1,848 | 0.02 |
| 1989 | 32 | #2,168 | 0.02 |
| 1988 | 28 | #2,211 | 0.01 |
| 1987 | 24 | #2,355 | 0.01 |
| 1986 | 18 | #2,825 | 0.01 |
| 1985 | 17 | #2,877 | 0.01 |
| 1984 | 20 | #2,471 | 0.01 |
| 1983 | 31 | #1,796 | 0.02 |
| 1982 | 25 | #2,137 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 22 | #2,291 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 30 | #1,882 | 0.02 |
| 1979 | 29 | #1,883 | 0.02 |
| 1978 | 24 | #2,033 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 19 | #2,399 | 0.01 |
| 1976 | 16 | #2,647 | 0.01 |
| 1975 | 14 | #2,812 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 7 | #4,349 | under 0.01 |
| 1973 | 8 | #3,848 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 9 | #3,459 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 5 | #5,235 | under 0.01 |
| 1970 | 7 | #4,012 | under 0.01 |
| 1964 | 7 | #3,425 | under 0.01 |
| 1962 | 5 | #4,310 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Ismail a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Ismail has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 58 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Ismail: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Ismail, and how old are they?
3,940 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 4,022 Americans ever recorded as Ismail. The median Ismail alive today is 14 years old; half are between 8 and 25.
The 2020 Census counted 6,001 people named Ismail (22 women and girls, 5,979 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 3,129 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.9 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.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 10 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 153 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 537 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,370 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,880 |
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 Ismail born?
The states with the most babies named Ismail are California, New York and Texas, with 54% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 34 | #762 | 0.8× |
| New York | 33 | #496 | 2.4× |
| Texas | 21 | #1,080 | 0.6× |
| New Jersey | 16 | #475 | 1.4× |
| Virginia | 11 | #644 | 1.1× |
| Illinois | 10 | #828 | 1.0× |
| Minnesota | 9 | #561 | 2.6× |
| Michigan | 9 | #797 | 1.1× |
| Maryland | 8 | #601 | 0.6× |
| Pennsylvania | 6 | #1,148 | 0.5× |
Where Ismail is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Ismail is most over-represented in Minnesota: since 1962 it was given 2.6 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 Ismail 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 4 names spelled alike, given to 48,864 babies since 1880, Ismail is the second most given (8.2% of them). In 2025 it was given to 204 of their 1,540 babies (13%), again the second 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 Ismail
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 Ismail and names like it
- Compare Ismail and IsmaelBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sIsmail peaked in 2025.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Ismail since 1910.
- Arabic namesWiktionary’s origin for Ismail: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Ismail.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Ismail alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with IMost given first.