Fun Facts About the Name Isis
- More than 11 thousand babies named Isis: U.S. records list 11,890 babies given the name Isis from 1880 through 2025. Even 12 boys received the name Isis - about 1 boy for every 990 girls.
What Does the Name Isis Mean?
Isis is the Greek form of the ancient Egyptian name written ꜣst, commonly read today as Aset or Iset. Its established meaning is "throne," and the name was written in hieroglyphs with the throne sign followed by the signs for the remaining consonants. Egyptian was written without vowels, so the original pronunciation is not directly recorded; Aset and Iset are modern scholarly readings rather than attested spellings. For the same reason the precise derivation is debated, but the link to the Egyptian word for "throne" is the standard explanation, and Egyptian art shows the goddess from early times wearing a throne-shaped emblem on her head. Egyptian religious texts treat the throne as the seat from which the king's authority comes, so the name was also understood to identify the goddess with the throne itself - a symbolic reading that grew out of the literal one.
Isis Name History & Origins
The Egyptian name appears in the Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom, the funerary spells carved inside royal pyramids from about 2350 BCE, where Isis is the wife of Osiris and the mother of Horus and recites the lamentations for her dead husband. Her cult expanded through the Middle and New Kingdoms, and by the first millennium BCE it had spread beyond Egypt.
Greek speakers adopted her worship early and rendered the name as Ἶσις; Herodotus, writing in the fifth century BCE, identified her with Demeter. From the Greek the name passed into Latin as Isis. Sanctuaries to her were built at Delos and the Piraeus, and from the third century BCE at Rome, where her temple in the Campus Martius became one of the largest in the city. Roman authorities sometimes regarded the cult with suspicion and destroyed her temples in the first century BCE, while later emperors promoted it. The second-century CE Latin novel of Apuleius, Metamorphoses, ends with the goddess appearing to the narrator, a scene that reflects how widely her worship had spread in the Roman world.
The temple of Isis at Philae in southern Egypt stayed in use longer than any other Egyptian temple, until it was closed in the sixth century under the emperor Justinian I. In Coptic, the final stage of the Egyptian language, the name is written Ⲏⲥⲉ (Ēse), which preserves a vowel that Greek and hieroglyphic writing do not. English took the name from Latin and uses Isis both for the goddess and, occasionally, as a girl's given name. Since the 2010s the same letters have also served as the acronym of a militant group in Iraq and Syria, an unrelated coincidence that has made the name conspicuous in news reporting.
How Popular is the Name Isis?
Isis recorded its highest annual U.S. birth count in 2005. Its best rank was #522 in 2005.
U.S. name popularity from 1880-2025, based on SSA data. Rank shows how the name compares with other names - lower numbers mean greater popularity. Births shows how many babies received the name each year.
| Year | Rank | Births | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | #1,625 | 128 | 0.0080% |
| 2024 | #1,082 | 228 | 0.0141% |
| 2023 | #1,464 | 151 | 0.0094% |
| 2022 | #1,800 | 114 | 0.0070% |
| 2021 | #1,793 | 113 | 0.0069% |
| 2020 | #2,450 | 71 | 0.0044% |
| 2019 | #2,574 | 68 | 0.0041% |
| 2018 | #3,073 | 53 | 0.0031% |
| 2017 | #3,109 | 52 | 0.0030% |
| 2016 | #3,119 | 53 | 0.0030% |
| 2015 | #1,784 | 117 | 0.0066% |
| 2014 | #703 | 401 | 0.0225% |
| 2013 | #575 | 501 | 0.0286% |
| 2012 | #615 | 467 | 0.0265% |
| 2011 | #633 | 449 | 0.0255% |
| 2010 | #625 | 471 | 0.0265% |
| 2009 | #610 | 495 | 0.0269% |
| 2008 | #606 | 504 | 0.0267% |
| 2007 | #553 | 553 | 0.0288% |
| 2006 | #567 | 519 | 0.0273% |
| 2005 | #522 | 561 | 0.0304% |
| 2004 | #534 | 532 | 0.0290% |
| 2003 | #588 | 467 | 0.0256% |
| 2002 | #562 | 472 | 0.0263% |
| 2001 | #545 | 485 | 0.0269% |
| 2000 | #556 | 470 | 0.0259% |
| 1999 | #594 | 414 | 0.0233% |
| 1998 | #625 | 376 | 0.0213% |
| 1997 | #710 | 303 | 0.0174% |
| 1996 | #902 | 218 | 0.0124% |
| 1995 | #941 | 201 | 0.0114% |
| 1994 | #991 | 187 | 0.0105% |
| 1993 | #1,020 | 182 | 0.0101% |
| 1992 | #1,291 | 132 | 0.0072% |
| 1991 | #1,167 | 150 | 0.0080% |
| 1990 | #1,675 | 88 | 0.0046% |
| 1989 | #1,635 | 85 | 0.0046% |
| 1988 | #1,920 | 64 | 0.0036% |
| 1987 | #1,999 | 56 | 0.0032% |
| 1986 | #1,935 | 57 | 0.0033% |
| 1985 | #1,792 | 63 | 0.0037% |
| 1984 | #2,060 | 49 | 0.0029% |
| 1983 | #1,719 | 63 | 0.0038% |
| 1982 | #1,760 | 63 | 0.0037% |
| 1981 | #2,168 | 47 | 0.0028% |
| 1980 | #2,053 | 51 | 0.0031% |
| 1979 | #1,884 | 56 | 0.0035% |
| 1978 | #1,539 | 72 | 0.0047% |
| 1977 | #1,329 | 87 | 0.0057% |
| 1976 | #1,011 | 124 | 0.0085% |
| 1975 | #1,611 | 61 | 0.0042% |
| 1974 | #2,942 | 24 | 0.0016% |
| 1973 | #3,839 | 16 | 0.0011% |
| 1972 | #3,446 | 18 | 0.0012% |
| 1971 | #3,299 | 20 | 0.0012% |
| 1970 | #4,333 | 13 | 0.0007% |
| 1967 | #5,156 | 8 | 0.0005% |
| 1965 | #5,483 | 7 | 0.0004% |
| 1964 | #6,289 | 6 | 0.0003% |
| 1963 | #6,140 | 6 | 0.0003% |
| 1962 | #6,145 | 6 | 0.0003% |
| 1960 | #6,727 | 5 | 0.0002% |
| 1901 | #1,798 | 5 | 0.0021% |
| Year | Rank | Births | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | #11,177 | 6 | 0.0003% |
| 2001 | #9,738 | 6 | 0.0003% |
Name popularity over more than a century, based on Social Security Administration data. Gaps in the chart indicate years when the name does not appear in the published records.
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How the Name Isis Shapes Your Personality and Life?
Your tendency is to finish whatever you start. You like to use the pen or the needle (writing, fashion design etc). You are loving, compassionate, intuitive and humanitarian. Runs of luck, either good or bad, follow you. You are sympathetic, but at times might be touchy and oversensitive. You may have a gift for writing. You are intuitive and might be interested in the arts, drama or science.
You are always looking for an opportunity to achieve financial and emotional security. You are basically peacemaker. You understand the law of harmony and desire to balance your life with those around you. You may feel incomplete without someone to share your love, ideals, wealth or work. You can be very sensitive and could appear a bit shy and perceptive. You have developed intuition, patience and the ability to nurture others. You can achieve the state of happiness if you are willing to accept your needs in a complimentary relationship and go to create them.
✦ Isis's Deeper Meaning & Tips for Parents Discover Isis's symbolic numbers and practical tips for choosing a name that complements your child's birth date.