Iesha
A feminine name of African American origin meaning "life" or "respected one".
Name Census estimates that about 7,131 living Americans carry the first name Iesha. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Iesha today is around 36 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Iesha births was 1991 (1,905 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Iesha. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Iesha with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
7.1K
~ 1 in 48,065 Americans
Peak year
1991
1,905 babies that year
Average age
36
years old
1991 SSA rank
#5,682
Tracked since 1968
Census
Iesha in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 5,653 people with the first name Iesha, which placed it at #3,615 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#3,615
National first-name rank
People counted
5.7K
5,653 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
80.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Iesha
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Iesha is Black at 80.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.9%) and Two or More Races (5.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Iesha described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Iesha at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American80.6% · 4,554
- Hispanic or Latino8.9% · 501
- Two or more races5.3% · 300
- White3.8% · 212
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 46
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 40
Gender
Gender distribution for Iesha
Out of the 7,467 babies given the name Iesha since 1880, 99.8% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Iesha as a male name
- Ranked #5,682 in 1991
- 9 male births in 1991
- Peak: 1991 (9 births)
Iesha as a female name
- Ranked #11,572 in 2023
- 8 female births in 2023
- Peak: 1991 (1,896 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Iesha appears almost entirely female. Of the 5,650 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Iesha: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Iesha from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 4,452 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Iesha by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Iesha during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ieshas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 38 states and territories. New York, Illinois, California recorded the most babies named Iesha, while West Virginia, Oregon, Delaware recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 155 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Iesha
The name Iesha has its origins in the Arabic language and is believed to have derived from the word 'Isha', which means 'life' or 'livelihood'. It is a feminine name that gained popularity in the Middle East and North Africa during the medieval period.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Iesha can be found in the writings of the renowned Arab poet and philosopher Al-Mutanabbi, who lived in the 10th century. He mentioned the name in one of his poems, suggesting that it was in use during that time.
In the 12th century, a notable figure named Iesha bint Al-Muqtadir was recorded in historical texts as a prominent scholar and poet in the court of the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad. Her contributions to literature and intellectual discourse during that period were widely recognized.
As the name spread across the Islamic world, it gained recognition in various cultures and regions. In the 14th century, an influential Sufi mystic from Persia, Iesha al-Khawafi, was renowned for her spiritual teachings and writings on Sufism.
During the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century, Iesha Sultan was a prominent figure in the imperial court. She was known for her patronage of the arts and her influence on the cultural and intellectual life of the empire.
In more recent history, Iesha Haynes, an American civil rights activist born in 1924, played a significant role in the fight for racial equality and desegregation in the United States. Her courageous efforts and advocacy for social justice left a lasting impact on the civil rights movement.
While these are a few notable examples, the name Iesha has been carried by numerous individuals throughout history, each leaving their unique mark in various fields and cultures across different parts of the world.
People
Iesha + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Iesha as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with I
Other first names starting with I with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Iesha: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Iesha?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 7,131 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Iesha going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 48,065 US residents.
Is Iesha a common name?
We classify Iesha as "Rare". It ranks above 97.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 7,467 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Iesha most popular?
The single biggest year for Iesha was 1991, when 1,905 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Iesha is about 36 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Iesha in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 5,653 people with the name Iesha, or 1.87 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,615 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Iesha in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Iesha?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Iesha appears almost entirely female. Of the 5,650 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Iesha?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Iesha is Black at 80.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.9%) and Two or More Races (5.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Iesha most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Iesha in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.6% (4,554 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Iesha in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Iesha a female name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Iesha in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Iesha still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Iesha in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Iesha can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people share the name Iesha?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.