Moise
A masculine given name of Hebrew origin meaning "drawn from the water".
Name Census estimates that about 717 living Americans carry the first name Moise. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Moise today is around 31 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Moise births was 2023 (22 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Moise. 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 Moise with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
717
~ 1 in 478,040 Americans
Peak year
2023
22 babies that year
Average age
31
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,569
Tracked since 1902
Census
Moise in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,647 people with the first name Moise, which placed it at #8,729 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
#8,729
National first-name rank
People counted
1.6K
1,647 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
67.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Moise
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Moise is Black at 67.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (17.9%) and White (12.0%). 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 Moise 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 Moise at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American67.8% · 1,116
- Hispanic or Latino17.9% · 295
- White12.0% · 198
- Two or more races1.6% · 26
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 12
Popularity
Moise: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Moise from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 151 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1990s peak, Moise remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Moise 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 Moise during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Moises live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. New York, Louisiana, Florida recorded the most babies named Moise, while Florida, Louisiana, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 77 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Moise
The given name Moise is derived from the Hebrew name Moshe, which is a derivative of the Hebrew verb meaning "to pull out" or "to draw out." This name can be traced back to the Old Testament and the Book of Exodus, where it refers to the prophet Moses, who was drawn out of the Nile River as a baby.
Moise is the French form of the name Moses, and it has been in use in France and other French-speaking regions for centuries. The earliest recorded instance of the name Moise dates back to the 12th century, when it appeared in French historical records.
In the Bible, Moses is a central figure in the story of the Exodus, where he leads the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt and receives the Ten Commandments from God on Mount Sinai. As such, the name Moise has been a popular choice among Jewish and Christian communities throughout history.
One of the earliest notable figures with the name Moise was Moise de Leon, a Spanish Kabbalist and writer who lived in the 13th century. He is best known for his work on the Zohar, a central text in Jewish mysticism.
Another prominent individual named Moise was Moise Amyraut, a French Protestant theologian and philosopher who lived in the 17th century. He was a leader of the Amyraldian school of thought, which sought to reconcile Calvinism with the idea of universal grace.
In the 19th century, Moise Froissart was a French painter and illustrator known for his Orientalist works depicting scenes from North Africa and the Middle East.
Moise Tshombe was a Congolese politician and leader who served as the first Prime Minister of the secessionist State of Katanga in the 1960s. He played a significant role in the political turmoil that followed the Congo's independence from Belgium.
Moise Kapenda Tshombe was a Congolese musician and bandleader who was influential in the development of Congolese rumba and soukous music in the 20th century.
People
Moise + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Moise as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Moise: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Moise?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 717 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Moise 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 478,040 US residents.
Is Moise a common name?
We classify Moise as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 920 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Moise most popular?
The single biggest year for Moise was 2023, when 22 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Moise is about 31 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Moise in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,647 people with the name Moise, or 0.55 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,729 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 Moise 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 Moise?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Moise leans strongly male. 1,612 people counted with this name were male (97.9%), compared with 35 female bearers (2.1%). 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 Moise?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Moise is Black at 67.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (17.9%) and White (12.0%). 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 Moise most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Moise in the 2020 Census, accounting for 67.8% (1,116 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 Moise in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Moise a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Moise 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 Moise still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Moise 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 Moise 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 Moise?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Moise, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.