Yair
Yair was given to 124 boys in 2025, #1,450 among boys’ names; 5,042 Americans have been recorded with it since 1976 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 4,980 Americans named Yair and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 16 years old and half are between 9 and 21.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Yair by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Yair mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Yair is “a male given name from Hebrew.” Its etymology gives the sense “he will light up” (meaning).
Transliteration of Hebrew יַאִיר, meaning “he will light up”.
/jaʔiɹ/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Yair?
#1,450 among boys’ names, 2025
Yair fell from #1,161 in 2015 to #1,450 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 84.0 to 72.6 per million.
311 babies in 2006, the peak
Yair peaked in 2006, when 311 boys were given it, #706 among boys’ names. The 124 births of 2025 are 40% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 124 | #1,450 | 0.07 |
| 2024 | 134 | #1,404 | 0.08 |
| 2023 | 184 | #1,143 | 0.11 |
| 2022 | 135 | #1,386 | 0.08 |
| 2021 | 116 | #1,528 | 0.07 |
| 2020 | 107 | #1,555 | 0.06 |
| 2019 | 161 | #1,192 | 0.09 |
| 2018 | 173 | #1,121 | 0.10 |
| 2017 | 150 | #1,230 | 0.08 |
| 2016 | 152 | #1,233 | 0.08 |
Every recorded year (48)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 161 | #1,161 | 0.08 |
| 2014 | 174 | #1,100 | 0.09 |
| 2013 | 207 | #971 | 0.11 |
| 2012 | 163 | #1,129 | 0.09 |
| 2011 | 194 | #1,004 | 0.10 |
| 2010 | 203 | #975 | 0.11 |
| 2009 | 259 | #837 | 0.13 |
| 2008 | 262 | #835 | 0.13 |
| 2007 | 295 | #753 | 0.14 |
| 2006 | 311 | #706 | 0.15 |
| 2005 | 262 | #759 | 0.13 |
| 2004 | 252 | #742 | 0.13 |
| 2003 | 259 | #717 | 0.13 |
| 2002 | 110 | #1,240 | 0.06 |
| 2001 | 74 | #1,611 | 0.04 |
| 2000 | 49 | #2,081 | 0.02 |
| 1999 | 34 | #2,600 | 0.02 |
| 1998 | 36 | #2,443 | 0.02 |
| 1997 | 45 | #2,018 | 0.02 |
| 1996 | 24 | #3,099 | 0.01 |
| 1995 | 26 | #2,839 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 23 | #3,100 | 0.01 |
| 1993 | 21 | #3,236 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 16 | #3,905 | 0.01 |
| 1991 | 22 | #2,981 | 0.01 |
| 1990 | 14 | #4,157 | 0.01 |
| 1989 | 14 | #4,010 | 0.01 |
| 1988 | 8 | #5,731 | under 0.01 |
| 1987 | 9 | #4,946 | under 0.01 |
| 1986 | 11 | #4,122 | 0.01 |
| 1985 | 5 | #7,553 | under 0.01 |
| 1984 | 12 | #3,690 | 0.01 |
| 1983 | 9 | #4,491 | 0.01 |
| 1982 | 14 | #3,276 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 9 | #4,484 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 5 | #7,055 | under 0.01 |
| 1978 | 8 | #4,546 | under 0.01 |
| 1976 | 6 | #5,573 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Yair a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Yair has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 48 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Yair: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Yair, and how old are they?
4,980 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 5,042 Americans ever recorded as Yair. The median Yair alive today is 16 years old; half are between 9 and 21.
The 2020 Census counted 4,382 people named Yair (41 women and girls, 4,341 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 4,223 born in the U.S. The Census count is 4% above that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 26 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 218 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,770 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,960 |
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 Yair born?
The states with the most babies named Yair are California, Texas and Illinois, with 56% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 20 | #1,080 | 1.7× |
| Texas | 20 | #1,130 | 1.4× |
| Illinois | 10 | #866 | 1.3× |
| New York | 9 | #1,290 | 1.3× |
| Florida | 8 | #1,469 | 0.7× |
| Georgia | 6 | #1,346 | 1.1× |
| Maryland | 6 | #804 | 0.3× |
| North Carolina | 5 | #1,464 | 1.1× |
| New Jersey | 5 | #1,176 | 1.0× |
Where Yair is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Yair is most over-represented in California: since 1976 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 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 Yair 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 17,573 babies since 1880, Yair is the second most given (29% of them). In 2025 it was given to 124 of their 429 babies (29%), 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 Yair
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 Yair and names like it
- Compare Yair and YahirBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sYair peaked in 2006.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Yair since 1910.
- Hebrew namesWiktionary’s origin for Yair: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2006The year the most babies were named Yair.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Yair alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with YMost given first.