Ismaeel
Prophet whose name represents "God hears" in Arabic.
Name Census estimates that about 435 living Americans carry the first name Ismaeel. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Ismaeel today is around 12 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ismaeel births was 2023 (34 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ismaeel. 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 Ismaeel with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
435
~ 1 in 787,941 Americans
Peak year
2023
34 babies that year
Average age
12
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,934
Tracked since 1995
Census
Ismaeel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 318 people with the first name Ismaeel, which placed it at #28,322 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
#28,322
National first-name rank
People counted
318
318 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
53.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ismaeel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ismaeel is Asian/Pacific Islander at 53.1%. The next largest groups are White (23.0%) and Black (12.9%). 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 Ismaeel 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 Ismaeel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander53.1% · 169
- White23.0% · 73
- Black or African American12.9% · 41
- Two or more races6.6% · 21
- Hispanic or Latino4.1% · 13
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 1
Popularity
Ismaeel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ismaeel from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 198 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Ismaeel remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ismaeel 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 Ismaeel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ismaeels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. New York, California, Michigan recorded the most babies named Ismaeel, while New Jersey, Michigan, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 14 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ismaeel
The name Ismaeel is derived from the Arabic name Ismail, which means "God has hearkened" or "God has heard." The Arabic name Ismail itself is derived from the Hebrew name Yishmael, which means "God will hear."
The name Ismaeel has its roots in the Abrahamic religions and is believed to have originated in the Middle East during ancient times. It is mentioned in religious texts such as the Quran and the Bible, where it refers to Ishmael, the son of the prophet Abraham and his wife Hagar.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Ismaeel can be found in the Quran, which mentions Ismail (the Arabic form of the name) as the son of Abraham and Hagar. The story of Ismail and his mother's journey to the desert is significant in Islamic tradition.
In the Bible, Ishmael is described as the firstborn son of Abraham and is considered the progenitor of several Arab tribes. The name Ishmael is also mentioned in the Book of Genesis, where he is described as a skilled archer and a wild man.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Ismaeel or its variations. One of the most famous was Ismail I (1487-1524), the Shah of Persia and the founder of the Safavid dynasty. He is known for establishing Shia Islam as the official religion of Persia and for his military conquests.
Another prominent figure was Ismail Pasha (1805-1861), an Ottoman military leader and statesman who served as the Wāli (governor) of Syria and later as the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.
In the field of literature, Ismail Kadare (born 1936) is a renowned Albanian novelist and poet who has been a nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature multiple times.
Ismail Merchant (1936-2005) was an Indian-born film producer and director, best known for his collaborations with writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and director James Ivory in the Merchant Ivory Productions.
Ismail Yasin (1976-2008) was a Palestinian-American terrorist who carried out the 2009 shooting attack on the Arkansas Military Recruiting Office in Little Rock, Arkansas.
People
Ismaeel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ismaeel 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
Ismaeel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ismaeel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 435 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ismaeel 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 787,941 US residents.
Is Ismaeel a common name?
We classify Ismaeel as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 439 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ismaeel most popular?
The single biggest year for Ismaeel was 2023, when 34 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ismaeel is about 12 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ismaeel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 318 people with the name Ismaeel, or 0.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #28,322 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 Ismaeel 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 Ismaeel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ismaeel appears almost entirely male. Of the 316 people counted with this name, 100.0% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Ismaeel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ismaeel is Asian/Pacific Islander at 53.1%. The next largest groups are White (23.0%) and Black (12.9%). 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 Ismaeel most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Ismaeel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 53.1% (169 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 Ismaeel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ismaeel a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ismaeel in the SSA data are male. 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 Ismaeel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ismaeel 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 Ismaeel 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 are called Ismaeel?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.