MEANING & HISTORY
What does Isaac mean?
Isaac comes through Greek and Latin from Hebrew Yitzḥaq, a verbal name meaning he laughs or he will laugh. In Genesis, laughter accompanies the promise and birth of the son of Abraham and Sarah.
That narrative explains the name’s lasting biblical association. The meaning is a statement about laughter, rather than the looser baby-name gloss happiness, although joy is a natural association readers may draw from the story.
References for this explanation
Pronunciation & syllables
Dictionary readings are kept by language. Select the reading that matches your intended pronunciation. Dots show the source’s written divisions; they are not a universal syllable count across languages.
Spanish
- /isaˈak/
- [i.saˈak]
- /iˈsak/
- [iˈsak]
I · sa · ac3 source divisions
Dictionary reading & contributors ↗Wiktionary contributors / Kaikki / Wiktextract · CC BY-SA 4.0
Origin and name formation
Language-specific accounts from the dictionary. A shared spelling can have more than one history.
EnglishEtymology & source
From Middle English Ysaac, from Latin Isaac, from Ancient Greek Ἰσαάκ (Isaák), from Hebrew יצחק (Yiṣḥāq, literally “he laughs, he will laugh”). Explained in Genesis as referring to his mother Sarah’s laughing when she was told she would have a son at her old age. The verb is masculine, however, perhaps due to its use as a boy’s name.
A male given name from Hebrew.
SpanishEtymology & source
a male given name, equivalent to English Isaac
Adapted from Wiktionary contributors via Kaikki/Wiktextract. Source accounts remain in their original English; editorial summaries and filters are adapted. Attribution and downloads
People with the name Isaac
Public figures and other documented namesakes linked by an explicit given-name claim. This is a selection of records, not a popularity ranking.
DOCUMENTED NAMESAKE
Isaac Holstein
Filipino-American basketball player
DOCUMENTED NAMESAKE
Isaac Lacson
Filipino politician
The record establishes the name association, not the person’s intended meaning, pronunciation or ancestry. Descriptions are attributed to Wikidata contributors (CC0).
Use in Philippine-linked records
Public-record transcription
2
eligible source records · 2001
This spelling is reported in an openly licensed transcription of elected-candidate records. This is a record count, not a birth count or national popularity measure.
OpenHalalan / COMELEC ↗Wikidata
3
distinct person records with an explicit given-name claim
Community-edited coverage, not a census or birth registry. Examples: Isaac Holstein, Isaac Lacson
PSA · OFFICIAL BIRTH RECORDS
Isaac in the birth records
Exact spelling and stated year in the published name tables. Read the counts as individual snapshots.
Tables included: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024. The 2016 fact sheet lists five names per sex; the later tables include ten. Missing counts are not inferred. Sex categories follow the official tables, independently of dictionary gender labels. Explore the official tables →
Similar names to Isaac
Names with a similar opening or ending, ordered by spelling distance. Similar spelling does not imply the same meaning or origin.
Names in this collection
- Isang♀Familiar Isabel in Tagalog; Luisa or Marisa in Cebuano
- Isay♀Tagalog familiar form of Luisa and other isa-ending names
- Islaw♂Familiar form of Estanislao; Israel also recorded in Cebuano
- Isabel♀My God is an oath
- Isagani♂Literary name, possibly from bountiful harvest
- Ising♀Clipped Crescencia with the familiar ending ng
- Isko♂Clipped familiar form of Francisco or Francis
- Ismael♂God hears or God will hear
What rhymes with Isaac?
No dictionary-confirmed rhyme match is available for this spelling in the current catalogue.
Explore Isaac further
Follow the sources
- OpenHalalan — pinned 2001 COMELEC transcription (opens in a new tab)
Source-reported given-name form in a row with a separate explicit middle initial; ODbL-1.0.
- COMELEC — 2001 List of Elected Candidates (opens in a new tab)
Original document identified by the transcription; selected PDF entries were spot-checked, not every imported row.
- Wikidata given-name item Q5920537 — Isaac (opens in a new tab)
Given-name identity, native labels, language associations and explicit class where present; not lexical meaning or population frequency.
- Wikidata — Isaac Holstein (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name claim P735 linking to Q5920537 and citizenship claim P27 linking to Philippines Q928; community-edited evidence, not a civil-registry record.
- Wikidata — Isaac Lacson (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name claim P735 linking to Q5920537 and citizenship claim P27 linking to Philippines Q928; community-edited evidence, not a civil-registry record.
- Wiktionary contributors — Isaac (English) (opens in a new tab)
Language-specific given-name etymology; shared spelling does not prove every bearer has this origin.
- Wiktionary contributors — Isaac (Spanish) (opens in a new tab)
Language-specific given-name etymology; shared spelling does not prove every bearer has this origin.
- Wiktionary: Isaac (opens in a new tab)
Name formation and linguistic history; consulted existing imported etymology.