Israel
- Pronunciation
- [I-sra-al]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- God Perseveres: Contends. In The Bible When Jacob Was In His Nineties As A Token Of Blessing God Changed His Name To Israel.
- Origin
- Hebrew
About the Name Israel
Israel descends from the Hebrew Yisra'el, traditionally interpreted in the Genesis narrative as "he wrestles with God" — composed of sara (to wrestle, to struggle) and El (God). The biblical narrative explains the name when the patriarch Jacob, after wrestling all night with a divine being at Peniel, is given the new name Israel as a sign of his transformation (Genesis 32:28). Jacob/Israel becomes the eponymous ancestor of the entire Israelite nation — one of the most consequential names in the Hebrew Bible.
The name has been continuously used in Jewish tradition for over three thousand years. The contemporary State of Israel (founded 1948) gave the name an additional major modern register, particularly in 20th-century American Jewish naming. Notable American bearers include American songwriter Irving Berlin (born Israel Beilin, 1888–1989, composer of "White Christmas," "God Bless America," and over 1,500 songs), 19th-century African-American clergyman Israel Tucker, and Hawaiian-American singer Israel Kamakawiwo'ole (1959–1997, whose ukulele medley of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow / What a Wonderful World" became a posthumous global hit).
Israel's American climb has been substantial: the name climbed from outside the US top 200 in 1990 to the US top 200 boys' rank by 2014 and the top 200 since. The name has been used predominantly in Spanish-speaking American Christian and Jewish communities. The name's appeal is its layered religious depth — biblically anchored across Jewish and Christian traditions, the inherent meaning of "wrestling with God" giving it a register of struggle and transformation, and three flowing syllables. Common nicknames Izzy (the dominant short form, gender-neutral), Iz, Rael, and the rare Yiz each carry distinct registers; international forms include Israel (Spanish/Italian/German, identical), the original Hebrew Yisra'el, and the related Yisroel (Yiddish).
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Israel
US Popularity History (2000–2025)
Annual US births named Israel by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2007 with 1,936 boys named Israel (boy rank #204 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #315 for boys (1,081 US births). That's 111 places below its 2007 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 Israel 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 Israel the strongest states are New Mexico, Texas, California.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Mexico | #143 | 149 |
| 2 | Texas | #151 | 2,415 |
| 3 | California | #166 | 2,415 |
| 4 | Arizona | #176 | 454 |
| 5 | Hawaii | #179 | 55 |
| 6 | Delaware | #197 | 17 |
| 7 | Nevada | #209 | 154 |
| 8 | Oklahoma | #226 | 217 |
| 9 | Colorado | #229 | 278 |
| 10 | North Dakota | #233 | 17 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Israel in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Izzy | Unknown | Female | English |
Looking for names like Israel?
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 Israel to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Israel against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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