Itamar
A masculine Hebrew name meaning "island dweller" or "palm coast".
Name Census estimates that about 312 living Americans carry the first name Itamar. It is a predominantly male name (94.9% of registrations). The average person named Itamar today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Itamar births was 2012 (18 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Itamar. 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 Itamar with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
312
~ 1 in 1,098,572 Americans
Peak year
2012
18 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#11,433
Tracked since 1987
Census
Itamar in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 687 people with the first name Itamar, which placed it at #16,426 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
#16,426
National first-name rank
People counted
687
687 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
71.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Itamar
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Itamar is White at 71.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (21.8%) and Black (4.2%). 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 Itamar 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 Itamar at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White71.0% · 488
- Hispanic or Latino21.8% · 150
- Black or African American4.2% · 29
- Two or more races1.5% · 10
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 9
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Itamar
Itamar leans heavily male at 94.9% of total registrations, but 16 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Itamar as a male name
- Ranked #11,433 in 2024
- 6 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2012 (18 births)
Itamar as a female name
- Ranked #17,615 in 2013
- 5 female births in 2013
- Peak: 2010 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Itamar leans strongly male. 567 people counted with this name were male (83.5%), compared with 112 female bearers (16.5%).
Popularity
Itamar: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Itamar from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 129 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Itamar 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 Itamar during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Itamars live
Origin
Meaning and history of Itamar
The name Itamar originates from the Hebrew language and culture. It is a biblical name, derived from the Hebrew words "iter," meaning island, and "mar," meaning bitter or bitterness. The name can be interpreted as "island of the palm tree" or "island of bitterness."
In the Old Testament, Itamar was the youngest son of Aaron, the first high priest of the Israelites. He was from the tribe of Levi and was appointed to serve as a priest alongside his brothers, Eleazar and Nadab, after the death of his two elder brothers, who were killed for offering strange fire before the Lord.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Itamar can be found in the Book of Exodus, where it is mentioned that Itamar and his brother Eleazar were appointed as priests by Moses. The name is also mentioned in several other books of the Bible, including Leviticus, Numbers, and 1 Chronicles.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Itamar. One of the most famous was Itamar ben Moses, a renowned Jewish philosopher and scholar who lived in the 11th century CE. He was born in Narbonne, France, and is known for his contributions to Jewish philosophy and his commentaries on the Talmud.
Another notable Itamar was Itamar Rabinovich, an Israeli diplomat and scholar who served as the President of Tel Aviv University and the President of the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies. He was born in 1935 and played a significant role in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in the 1990s.
Itamar Golan was an Israeli military leader who served as the 16th Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces from 1994 to 1998. He was born in 1936 and played a crucial role in the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War.
Itamar Marcus is an Israeli historian and founder of the organization Palestinian Media Watch, which monitors and translates Arabic-language media from the Palestinian territories. He was born in 1949 and has been a prominent voice in exposing anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in Palestinian media.
Itamar Srulovitch was an Israeli military officer and politician who served as the Director of the Mossad, Israel's national intelligence agency, from 1989 to 1996. He was born in 1931 and played a significant role in various covert operations and intelligence activities during his tenure.
People
Itamar + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Itamar 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
Itamar: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Itamar?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 312 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Itamar 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 1,098,572 US residents.
Is Itamar a common name?
We classify Itamar as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 316 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Itamar most popular?
The single biggest year for Itamar was 2012, when 18 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Itamar is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Itamar in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 687 people with the name Itamar, or 0.23 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #16,426 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 Itamar 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 Itamar?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Itamar leans strongly male. 567 people counted with this name were male (83.5%), compared with 112 female bearers (16.5%). 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 Itamar?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Itamar is White at 71.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (21.8%) and Black (4.2%). 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 Itamar most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Itamar in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.0% (488 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 Itamar in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Itamar a male name?
Yes, 94.9% of people registered as Itamar 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 Itamar still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Itamar 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 Itamar 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 Itamar as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.