Ismail
A masculine Arabic name meaning "God hears" or "God listens".
Name Census estimates that about 3,757 living Americans carry the first name Ismail. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Ismail today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ismail births was 2016 (171 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ismail. 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 Ismail with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.8K
~ 1 in 91,231 Americans
Peak year
2016
171 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,228
Tracked since 1962
Census
Ismail in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 6,001 people with the first name Ismail, which placed it at #3,461 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
#3,461
National first-name rank
People counted
6.0K
6,001 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
39.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ismail
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ismail is White at 39.0%. The next largest groups are Black (31.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (18.8%). 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 Ismail 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 Ismail at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White39.0% · 2,340
- Black or African American31.6% · 1,899
- Asian and Pacific Islander18.8% · 1,128
- Hispanic or Latino5.6% · 337
- Two or more races4.8% · 288
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 9
Popularity
Ismail: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ismail from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,349 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Ismail remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ismail 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 Ismail during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ismails live
The SSA's state-level files cover 18 states and territories. New York, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Ismail, while Wisconsin, Missouri, Arizona recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 126 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ismail
The name Ismail is of Arabic origin and has been in use since ancient times. It is derived from the Arabic root words 'isma' meaning 'obedience' and 'il' referring to God. Thus, the name Ismail carries the meaning of 'God has hearkened' or 'obedient to God'.
One of the earliest mentions of the name Ismail can be found in the Quran, the holy book of Islam. Here, Ismail is the name of the son of the prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) and his wife Hajar (Hagar). The story of Ismail's near-sacrifice is a pivotal event in the Abrahamic faiths of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.
The name Ismail has been popular among Muslims throughout history, with many notable individuals bearing this name. One of the earliest was Ismail ibn Jafar, an 8th-century Arab scientist and translator who played a significant role in the translation of Greek scientific works into Arabic during the Abbasid Caliphate.
Another famous Ismail was Ismail I, the Shah of Persia from 1501 to 1524, who founded the Safavid dynasty and established Shia Islam as the state religion of Persia. His name is also associated with the city of Isfahan, which he made the capital of his empire.
In the modern era, Sir Ismail Mohamed, born in 1836, was a prominent South African politician and activist who fought for the rights of Indians in South Africa alongside Mahatma Gandhi. He was also the founder of the Natal Indian Congress.
Ismail Yasin, born in 1973, is a contemporary Iraqi-American author and poet known for his works exploring themes of identity, displacement, and the Iraqi diaspora experience. His collections include 'Roots' and 'Healing Cup'.
These are just a few examples of the many notable individuals throughout history who have borne the name Ismail, a name steeped in religious and cultural significance, particularly within the Islamic tradition.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Ismail
People
Ismail + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ismail 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
Ismail: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ismail?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,757 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ismail 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 91,231 US residents.
Is Ismail a common name?
We classify Ismail as "Rare". It ranks above 95.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,818 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ismail most popular?
The single biggest year for Ismail was 2016, when 171 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ismail is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ismail in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 6,001 people with the name Ismail, or 1.99 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,461 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 Ismail 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 Ismail?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ismail appears almost entirely male. Of the 6,001 people counted with this name, 99.6% 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 Ismail?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ismail is White at 39.0%. The next largest groups are Black (31.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (18.8%). 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 Ismail most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ismail in the 2020 Census, accounting for 39.0% (2,340 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 Ismail in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ismail a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ismail 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 Ismail still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ismail 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 Ismail 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 Ismail as a first name?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Ismail, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.