Isamar
A feminine name of Spanish origin meaning "gift from the sea".
Name Census estimates that about 2,413 living Americans carry the first name Isamar. It is a predominantly female name (96.3% of registrations). The average person named Isamar today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Isamar births was 1990 (470 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Isamar. 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.
Key insights
- • Although Isamar is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 91 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
2.4K
~ 1 in 142,045 Americans
Peak year
1990
470 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
1996 SSA rank
#3,087
Tracked since 1990
Census
Isamar in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,614 people with the first name Isamar, which placed it at #6,194 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
#6,194
National first-name rank
People counted
2.6K
2,614 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
97.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Isamar
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Isamar is Hispanic at 97.7%. The next largest groups are White (1.6%) and Black (0.4%). 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 Isamar 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 Isamar at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino97.7% · 2,555
- White1.6% · 41
- Black or African American0.4% · 10
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 5
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.1% · 3
Gender
Gender distribution for Isamar
Isamar leans heavily female at 96.3% of total registrations, but 91 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Isamar as a male name
- Ranked #9,581 in 1996
- 5 male births in 1996
- Peak: 1990 (23 births)
Isamar as a female name
- Ranked #3,087 in 2024
- 52 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1990 (447 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Isamar leans strongly female. 2,580 people counted with this name were female (98.9%), compared with 30 male bearers (1.1%).
Popularity
Isamar: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Isamar from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 1,626 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
Isamar 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 Isamar during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Isamars live
The SSA's state-level files cover 9 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Isamar, while Massachusetts, Connecticut, Arizona recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 203 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Isamar
The name Isamar is believed to have originated from the Arabic language, with its roots dating back to the early medieval period in the Middle East. Derived from the Arabic words "Isam" and "Amar," which roughly translate to "protector" and "to live," the name Isamar carries the connotation of a lifelong guardian or caretaker.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Isamar can be found in the works of the renowned Islamic scholar and historian, Al-Tabari, who lived from 838 to 923 AD. In his chronicles, Al-Tabari mentions an individual named Isamar ibn Khalid, a revered military commander during the Umayyad Caliphate.
During the Golden Age of Islamic civilization, which spanned from the 8th to the 13th century, the name Isamar gained prominence among the scholarly and ruling classes. One notable figure was Isamar al-Andalusi, a philosopher and poet born in Cordoba, Spain, in the late 10th century. His works were instrumental in bridging the intellectual gap between the Islamic world and Europe.
As the Islamic empires expanded, the name Isamar spread across various regions, including North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula. In the 12th century, Isamar ibn Hisham was a renowned Moroccan traveler and explorer who documented his journeys across the Mediterranean and the Middle East.
In the 14th century, the name Isamar resurfaced in the Ottoman Empire, with Isamar Pasha, a high-ranking military commander and statesman, playing a pivotal role in the expansion of Ottoman territories into the Balkans.
As trade and cultural exchanges flourished across the Indian Ocean, the name Isamar also found its way to the coastal regions of East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. One such figure was Isamar bin Sulaiman, a renowned Omani navigator and merchant who sailed the treacherous waters of the Indian Ocean in the late 15th century.
While the name Isamar has its roots in the Arabic language and Islamic culture, it has also been embraced by various other communities over the centuries, transcending linguistic and geographic boundaries.
People
Isamar + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Isamar 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
Isamar: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Isamar?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,413 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Isamar 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 142,045 US residents.
Is Isamar a common name?
We classify Isamar as "Rare". It ranks above 94.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,481 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Isamar most popular?
The single biggest year for Isamar was 1990, when 470 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Isamar is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Isamar in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,614 people with the name Isamar, or 0.87 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,194 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 Isamar 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 Isamar?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Isamar leans strongly female. 2,580 people counted with this name were female (98.9%), compared with 30 male bearers (1.1%). 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 Isamar?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Isamar is Hispanic at 97.7%. The next largest groups are White (1.6%) and Black (0.4%). 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 Isamar most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Isamar in the 2020 Census, accounting for 97.7% (2,555 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 Isamar in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Isamar a female name?
Yes, 96.3% of people registered as Isamar 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 Isamar still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Isamar 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 Isamar 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 have the name Isamar?
For a quick modern take, check how many people have the name Isamar on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.