Ismael
- Pronunciation
- [Is-ma-al]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- God Listens. In The Bible Ismael Was Son Of Abraham By Sarah's Egyptian Slave Woman Hagar.
- Origin
- Spanish
About the Name Ismael
Ismael is the Spanish form of Ishmael, descending from the Hebrew Yishma'el meaning "God listens" or "God hears." The biblical Ishmael is the eldest son of Abraham, born to Abraham's Egyptian handmaid Hagar (Genesis 16) — and is, in Islamic tradition, the ancestor of the Arab peoples (the Prophet Muhammad traces his lineage back to Ishmael). Both Christianity and Islam recognize Ismael/Ishmael as a prophet.
The name has been used continuously across Spanish-speaking and Muslim naming traditions for centuries. Notable bearers include American novelist Ishmael Reed (using the English spelling, born 1938); the iconic narrator Ishmael of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851) — the novel's famous opening line "Call me Ishmael" being one of the most-iconic in American literature; and contemporary Spanish soccer player Ismael Falcón.
Ismael has been continuously used in Spanish-speaking American communities for over a century. The name climbed into the US top 300 boys' rank by 2000 and held a top-300 range since, driven primarily by Spanish-language naming influence. The name's appeal is its layered Hebrew-Spanish-Catholic-Islamic pedigree combined with three flowing syllables — the in-built Old Testament patriarchal register, the religious-prophetic anchor, and tonal warmth distinctive to Spanish-language naming. Common nicknames Mael, Maelo, Issy, and the rare Mel each carry distinct registers; international forms include Ishmael (English original), Ismaël (French, with diaeresis), Ismaele (Italian), Ismail (Arabic original spelling), and the original Hebrew Yishma'el.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Ismael
US Popularity History (2000–2025)
Annual US births named Ismael by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2024 with 1,532 boys named Ismael (boy rank #234 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #263 for boys (1,307 US births). That's 29 places below its 2024 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Ismael Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Ismael the strongest states are Arizona, California, Texas.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arizona | #157 | 520 |
| 2 | California | #171 | 2,391 |
| 3 | Texas | #212 | 1,835 |
| 4 | New Mexico | #214 | 89 |
| 5 | Nevada | #283 | 112 |
| 6 | Colorado | #300 | 205 |
| 7 | Illinois | #304 | 383 |
| 8 | Idaho | #339 | 28 |
| 9 | Washington | #342 | 221 |
| 10 | Oregon | #354 | 118 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Louisiana | #778 | 17 |
| 2 | Ohio | #697 | 78 |
| 3 | Tennessee | #676 | 79 |
| 4 | Michigan | #661 | 84 |
| 5 | Virginia | #646 | 98 |
| 6 | Missouri | #634 | 35 |
| 7 | Alabama | #629 | 57 |
| 8 | Minnesota | #617 | 70 |
| 9 | Pennsylvania | #615 | 137 |
| 10 | South Carolina | #592 | 38 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Ismael in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Looking for names like Ismael?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Ismael to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Ismael against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).