Israel

72,115 people in America carry this name — ranked #711 of 923.

Most Americans carrying it were born this century.

Say it IHZ ree uhl

3 syllables · the capitals are the stressed part

Phonetic transcription

IH1 Z R IY0 AH0 L — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.

  • People counted 72,115 2020 Census
  • Rank #711 Familiar
  • Per 100,000 23.9 about 1 in 4,596 people
  • As a surname 11,514 ranked #3,045 the other way round

Where Israel comes from and what it means

Reads literally as “who prevails with God”.

Origins are a matter of scholarly argument rather than record, and a name can be traced more than one way. We state one reading and say where it came from.

How often Israel has been given

65,645 babies were given this name since 1880. The busiest year was 2007, with 1,994 of them.

80 90 00 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 00s 10 20

Most people carrying it were born in the 2000s.

Counted from Social Security card applications, so it covers births registered in the United States and leaves out names given to fewer than five babies in a year.

Middle names that fit Israel

Three syllables already, so a short middle name keeps the whole from running long.

Better avoided

  • Israel Larry — runs together
  • Israel Luis — runs together
  • Israel Logan — runs together

Chosen by sound from the pronouncing dictionary, then ordered by how often the name is given. None of it is a rule — the ear decides.

On the way up

Israel is given more often now than it was a generation ago. Most names move the other way.

Boys or girls: who is called Israel?

98.5% men
1,116 women

As recorded on census returns, not as anyone thinks the name ought to be used.

Names about as common

The nearest entries above and below by number of people.

Where the name Israel is most common in the US

In Texas the name is given 2.4 times as often as it is across the country.

  • Texas ×2.4
  • New Mexico ×2.3
  • Arizona ×2.1
  • California ×1.8
  • Nevada ×1.6

Measured against the state's own share of births since 1960, so a small state can lead a big one. Counted from Social Security card applications.

The likeliest full names

The census counts first names and surnames separately and never together, so these are estimates: how often the two halves would meet if they paired at random. They do not — names cluster by community — so read them as an order of magnitude, not a headcount.

Names with the same rhythm as Israel

Nothing else in the file ends on the same sound — a rare thing, and useful if you want a first name nobody will echo.

Same rhythm — 3 syllables, stress on the first

Matched on phonemes, not spelling, so the lists follow the ear rather than the page.

Try it First-Year Costs

Open First-Year Costs on its own page

Where this page gets its numbers

  • Counts, ranks and shares: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census tabulations of first and last names occurring 100 or more times. Percentages, bands and groupings are our own arithmetic — the conclusions are ours, not the Bureau’s.
  • Pronunciation, syllables and rhyme groups: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, Carnegie Mellon University. The plain-English respelling is ours.
  • Origins and the forms a name takes in other languages: Charlotte Yonge, History of Christian Names, 1884 — a public-domain work. Scholarship has moved on since, so read it as one reading of a name, not the last word.

Below a hundred people we publish no figure at all — the same threshold the Census Bureau applies to us. What each source covers