Meaning and history
Ishmael comes from the Hebrew name יִשְׁמָעֵאל (Yishmaʿel), meaning “God will hear,” from שָׁמַע (shamaʿ), “to hear,” and אֵל (ʾel), “God.” In the Old Testament, it is the name of Abraham’s son, traditionally regarded as the ancestor of the Arab people, and also of the man who assassinated Gedaliah, governor of Judah. Herman Melville later used the name for the narrator of Moby-Dick (1851).
20062006: 114 births, rank #1,391
2007: 116 births, rank #1,405
2008: 100 births, rank #1,582
2009: 117 births, rank #1,433
2010: 111 births, rank #1,470
20112011: 133 births, rank #1,285
2012: 127 births, rank #1,336
2013: 121 births, rank #1,387
2014: 141 births, rank #1,264
2015: 150 births, rank #1,223
20162016: 132 births, rank #1,349
2017: 158 births, rank #1,182
2018: 139 births, rank #1,305
2019: 143 births, rank #1,296
2020: 144 births, rank #1,271
20212021: 143 births, rank #1,307
2022: 97 births, rank #1,731
2023: 120 births, rank #1,489
2024: 121 births, rank #1,487
20252025: 121 births, rank #1,466
Ishmael moved from #904 to #953 for boys between 1997 and 1998. Its highest annual birth count came in 1997, with 152 births.