Yisrael
Yisrael was given to 64 boys in 2025, #2,227 among boys’ names; 1,560 Americans have been recorded with it since 1976 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,540 Americans named Yisrael and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 12 years old and half are between 6 and 20.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Yisrael by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Yisrael mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Yisrael is “a male given name from Hebrew.”
Variant of Israel.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Yisrael?
#2,227 among boys’ names, 2025
Yisrael rose from #2,326 in 2015 to #2,227 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 29.7 to 37.5 per million.
83 babies in 2024, the peak
Yisrael peaked in 2024, when 83 boys were given it, #1,920 among boys’ names. The 64 births of 2025 are 77% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 64 | #2,227 | 37.5 |
| 2024 | 83 | #1,920 | 48.2 |
| 2023 | 70 | #2,110 | 40.9 |
| 2022 | 77 | #1,998 | 44.1 |
| 2021 | 58 | #2,369 | 33.2 |
| 2020 | 64 | #2,187 | 37.1 |
| 2019 | 73 | #2,018 | 40.7 |
| 2018 | 74 | #1,992 | 40.7 |
| 2017 | 65 | #2,127 | 35.1 |
| 2016 | 68 | #2,085 | 35.8 |
Every recorded year (47)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 57 | #2,326 | 29.7 |
| 2014 | 63 | #2,172 | 32.8 |
| 2013 | 59 | #2,221 | 31.2 |
| 2012 | 49 | #2,549 | 25.8 |
| 2011 | 55 | #2,342 | 29.0 |
| 2010 | 42 | #2,871 | 21.9 |
| 2009 | 45 | #2,751 | 22.7 |
| 2008 | 44 | #2,786 | 21.6 |
| 2007 | 41 | #2,915 | 19.8 |
| 2006 | 44 | #2,695 | 21.4 |
| 2005 | 35 | #3,017 | 17.5 |
| 2004 | 28 | #3,447 | 14.1 |
| 2003 | 17 | #4,807 | 8.6 |
| 2002 | 22 | #3,901 | 11.3 |
| 2001 | 32 | #2,923 | 16.5 |
| 2000 | 17 | #4,560 | 8.7 |
| 1999 | 12 | #5,642 | 6.2 |
| 1998 | 14 | #4,861 | 7.3 |
| 1997 | 14 | #4,655 | 7.4 |
| 1996 | 13 | #4,867 | 6.9 |
| 1995 | 20 | #3,421 | 10.5 |
| 1994 | 12 | #5,098 | 6.2 |
| 1993 | 12 | #4,989 | 6.1 |
| 1992 | 10 | #5,642 | 5.0 |
| 1991 | 11 | #5,087 | 5.4 |
| 1990 | 10 | #5,359 | 4.9 |
| 1989 | 12 | #4,513 | 6.0 |
| 1988 | 11 | #4,437 | 5.7 |
| 1987 | 7 | #6,071 | 3.7 |
| 1986 | 8 | #5,319 | 4.3 |
| 1985 | 5 | #7,558 | 2.7 |
| 1984 | 8 | #4,959 | 4.4 |
| 1983 | 6 | #6,221 | 3.3 |
| 1982 | 6 | #6,372 | 3.3 |
| 1980 | 8 | #4,929 | 4.5 |
| 1977 | 8 | #4,572 | 4.9 |
| 1976 | 7 | #4,924 | 4.5 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Yisrael a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Yisrael has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 47 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Yisrael: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Yisrael, and how old are they?
1,540 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 1,560 Americans ever recorded as Yisrael. The median Yisrael alive today is 12 years old; half are between 6 and 20.
The 2020 Census counted 1,000 people named Yisrael (21 women and girls, 979 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,145 born in the U.S. The Census count is 13% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 21 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 144 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 504 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 869 |
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 Yisrael born?
The states with the most babies named Yisrael are New York, New Jersey and Florida, with 100% of its births recorded by state in 2025; New Jersey is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 24 | #637 | 6.2× |
| New Jersey | 17 | #468 | 5.9× |
| Florida | 5 | #2,090 | 0.4× |
Where Yisrael is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Yisrael is most over-represented in New York: since 1976 it was given 6.2 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 Yisrael 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 8,425 babies since 1880, Yisrael is the second most given (19% of them). In 2025 it was given to 64 of their 369 babies (17%), 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 Yisrael
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 Yisrael and names like it
- Compare Yisrael and YisroelBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sYisrael peaked in 2024.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Yisrael since 1910.
- Hebrew namesWiktionary’s origin for Yisrael: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2024The year the most babies were named Yisrael.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Yisrael alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with YMost given first.