Shem Tov Boy's nameOrigin: biblicalIn Israel: steady
YishaiIn Hebrew: ישי · meaning, pronunciation and popularity in Israel
With vowel points: יִשַׁיRomanization: yishái
Yishai (Hebrew: ישי) is a boy's name of biblical origin. 12,838 people born in Israel between 1949 and 2024 have it today, according to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). In 2024 it was given to 470 boys and ranked #41. Its peak year was 2020, with 526 babies.
- People in Israel
- 12,838
- born 1949–2024
- Babies in 2024
- 470
- rank #41
- Peak year
- 2020
- 526 babies
- USA
- —
- not in the SSA list
Writing and saying Yishai
In Hebrew letters the name is ישי, read right to left. Yishai is the Latin spelling recorded by our review; families choose their own spelling in passports, so you may also meet other forms. Wiktionary romanizes it as "yishái" (the accent marks the stressed syllable).
Meaning and origin
- Jesse (the son of Obed and the father of king David)
- a male given name, Ishai, Yishai, and Yishay, equivalent to English Jesse
At least two hypotheses exist, none are explicitly mentioned in the Bible: * From י (yi, “one of the letters of the Tetragrammaton – a theonym for God”) + שַׁי (sháy, “gift, present”), thus "God's gift". * From יֵשׁ (yésh, “there is, there exist(s)”) + י (“one of the letters of the Tetragrammaton – a theonym for God”), thus "God exists".
Quoted from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0), unchanged.
Yishai by year in Israel
How many boys out of every 10,000 born each year have the name. For Israel it counts the people born that year who carry the name today (the CBS counts residents by year of birth, not birth registrations).
per 10,000 babies of the same sex
Questions about Yishai
How do you write Yishai in Hebrew?
Yishai is written ישי in Hebrew (with vowel points: יִשַׁי). Hebrew is read right to left. A dictionary romanization is "yishái".
How many people in Israel are named Yishai?
12,838 people born between 1949 and 2024 carry the name ישי: 65 women and 12,773 men. The count comes from the CBS table of current first names by year of birth; years with fewer than 5 people are not published.
Is Yishai a boy's or a girl's name?
In Israel it is almost always a boy's name: 99.5% of the people named ישי are men.
What does the name Yishai mean?
English Wiktionary describes it as: "Jesse (the son of Obed and the father of king David)" Etymology: At least two hypotheses exist, none are explicitly mentioned in the Bible: * From י (yi, “one of the letters of the Tetragrammaton – a theonym for God”) + שַׁי (sháy, “gift, present”), thus "God's gift". * From יֵשׁ (yésh, “there is, there exist(s)”) + י (“one of the letters of the Tetragrammaton – a theonym for God”), thus "God exists".
Sources
Israel: Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), current first names of people born 1949–2024 by sex, population group and year of birth, processed 2026-09-27. CBS publications.