Yitzchok
A Hebrew masculine name meaning "he will laugh" or "he shall rejoice".
Name Census estimates that about 5,069 living Americans carry the first name Yitzchok. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Yitzchok today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yitzchok births was 2024 (236 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yitzchok. 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 Yitzchok with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
5.1K
~ 1 in 67,618 Americans
Peak year
2024
236 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2024 SSA rank
#958
Tracked since 1952
Census
Yitzchok in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,432 people with the first name Yitzchok, which placed it at #5,108 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
#5,108
National first-name rank
People counted
3.4K
3,432 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
99.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yitzchok
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yitzchok is White at 99.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (0.3%) and Hispanic (0.3%). 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 Yitzchok 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 Yitzchok at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White99.0% · 3,398
- Two or more races0.3% · 10
- Hispanic or Latino0.3% · 9
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.2% · 8
- Black or African American0.2% · 7
Popularity
Yitzchok: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yitzchok from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,544 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Yitzchok remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yitzchok 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 Yitzchok during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Yitzchoks live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. New York, New Jersey, Illinois recorded the most babies named Yitzchok, while Illinois, New Jersey, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,596 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Yitzchok
The name Yitzchok is a Hebrew name derived from the biblical patriarch Isaac, son of Abraham and Sarah. Its origins can be traced back to ancient Semitic languages, where it is believed to have meant "he will laugh" or "he laughs."
The name first appears in the book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible, where Isaac is born to Abraham and Sarah in their old age after being promised a son by God. The name reflects the laughter of Abraham and Sarah upon learning of the divine promise of a child despite their advanced years.
One of the earliest recorded individuals bearing the name Yitzchok was Isaac ben Samuel of Acre, a 13th-century Hebrew author and philosopher from the city of Acre in present-day Israel. He wrote several works on Jewish law and ethics, including the book "Meir Netiv."
In the 16th century, Yitzchok Luria, also known as the Arizal, was a prominent Jewish mystic and scholar from Safed, in the Galilee region of the Ottoman Empire. He made significant contributions to the study of Kabbalah and influenced the development of Jewish mysticism.
Yitzchok Abravanel, a 15th-century Portuguese Jewish philosopher, biblical commentator, and statesman, served as a finance minister to King Alfonso V of Portugal. His commentary on the Bible, known as the "Abravanel," is widely studied and respected.
In the 19th century, Yitzchok Meir Alter, also known as the Chidushei HaRim, was a renowned Hasidic rabbi and leader of the Ger Hasidic dynasty in Poland. He was revered for his scholarly works and his leadership during a period of persecution and upheaval for European Jewry.
Yitzchok Bashevis Singer, a Polish-born American writer, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1978 for his works exploring Jewish folklore, traditions, and the human condition. His best-known works include "The Spinoza of Market Street" and "Gimpel the Fool."
People
Yitzchok + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yitzchok as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with Y
Other first names starting with Y with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Yitzchok: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yitzchok?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5,069 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yitzchok 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 67,618 US residents.
Is Yitzchok a common name?
We classify Yitzchok as "Rare". It ranks above 96.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,181 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yitzchok most popular?
The single biggest year for Yitzchok was 2024, when 236 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yitzchok is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Yitzchok in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,432 people with the name Yitzchok, or 1.14 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,108 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 Yitzchok 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 Yitzchok?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Yitzchok appears almost entirely male. Of the 3,440 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Yitzchok?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yitzchok is White at 99.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (0.3%) and Hispanic (0.3%). 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 Yitzchok most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Yitzchok in the 2020 Census, accounting for 99.0% (3,398 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 Yitzchok in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yitzchok a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Yitzchok 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 Yitzchok still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yitzchok 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 Yitzchok 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 Yitzchok?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Yitzchok at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.