Isom
A variant of the name Isham, having Greek origins meaning "equal".
Name Census estimates that about 602 living Americans carry the first name Isom. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Isom today is around 53 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Isom births was 1920 (37 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Isom. 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.
People living today
602
~ 1 in 569,359 Americans
Peak year
1920
37 babies that year
Average age
53
years old
2024 SSA rank
#12,983
Tracked since 1880
Census
Isom in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 493 people with the first name Isom, which placed it at #20,821 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
#20,821
National first-name rank
People counted
493
493 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
54.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Isom
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Isom is Black at 54.8%. The next largest groups are White (32.7%) and Two or More Races (5.7%). 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 Isom 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 Isom at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American54.8% · 270
- White32.7% · 161
- Two or more races5.7% · 28
- Hispanic or Latino4.7% · 23
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.6% · 8
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 3
Popularity
Isom: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Isom from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 277 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Isom 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 Isom during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Isoms live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. Mississippi, Georgia, Texas recorded the most babies named Isom, while Louisiana, Kentucky, Alabama recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 25 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Isom
The name Isom is an English given name derived from the Hebrew name Ishmael. It originated in the Middle Ages, likely as a variant spelling or pronunciation of the biblical name. Ishmael was the son of Abraham and Hagar in the Old Testament. The name means "God hears" in Hebrew.
In the 11th century, the name Ismaél appears in the Domesday Book of 1086, a manuscript record of landholders in England commissioned by William the Conqueror. This early spelling variation indicates the name's use during the Norman period. Over time, the name transformed through various spellings like Ismael, Ismale, and eventually Isom.
One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name Isom was Isom Dart, an English landowner born around 1580 in Wiltshire, England. In the late 17th century, Isom Folger was a prominent merchant and ship captain from Nantucket, Massachusetts, born in 1679.
Notable historical figures with the name Isom include Isom Pickett, a Confederate soldier in the American Civil War born in 1826. He fought in several major battles and was captured at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. Isom Jeffries, born in 1834 in Kentucky, was a Baptist minister and educator who founded the Jeffries Institute, a historically black college in Mississippi.
Isom Philmore Davidson, born in 1841 in Pennsylvania, was a Union Army officer during the Civil War and later served as a judge in Kansas. Isom Clinton, born in 1837 in Ohio, was a politician who served as a U.S. Representative from Iowa in the late 19th century.
In the arts, Isom Gravat was a prominent American painter and illustrator born in 1846 in Indiana. He is known for his landscapes and Civil War scenes. Isom Dart Ricketts, born in 1839 in Ohio, was a poet and author who wrote several works of fiction and non-fiction.
People
Isom + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Isom 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
Isom: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Isom?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 602 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Isom 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 569,359 US residents.
Is Isom a common name?
We classify Isom as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,775 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Isom most popular?
The single biggest year for Isom was 1920, when 37 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Isom is about 53 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Isom in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 493 people with the name Isom, or 0.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #20,821 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 Isom 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 Isom?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Isom leans strongly male. 473 people counted with this name were male (98.1%), compared with 9 female bearers (1.9%). 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 Isom?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Isom is Black at 54.8%. The next largest groups are White (32.7%) and Two or More Races (5.7%). 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 Isom most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Isom in the 2020 Census, accounting for 54.8% (270 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 Isom in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Isom a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Isom 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 Isom still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Isom 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 Isom 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 common is the name Isom?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.