Given name & surname

Isam

“one who is protected”

Isam is used as a given name and a surname. One Arabic interpretation is “one who is protected.”

Meaning & origin

What it means

One Arabic interpretation is “one who is protected.”

Where it comes from

An origin associated with this spelling is Arabic.

How it developed

From Arabic عِصَام (“security, pledge”); its root is Arabic ع ص م.

Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The story

Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1880. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.

From dated birth records

Isam through the years

Babies since 1880
299
299 boys · 0 girls
Most popular year
1998
11 babies
2025
7
#10,080 for boys
2021–25 vs 2016–20
−18%
Easing
020406018801900192019401960198020002025Highest share 18804.1
Isam in U.S. Social Security birth records, 1880–2025, per million boys born. Years with fewer than five births for a sex are not published and appear as zero. Use the arrow keys to step through years.

By the numbers

In 2025, this name appeared in 7 U.S. birth records for boys, ranking No. 10,080 among boys’ names. The recent annual counts are too incomplete to establish a ten-year comparison. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 733 as a first name in 2020; 219 as a surname in 2020.

From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.

Isam’s family of names

In English usage, Isam has a diminutive in Izzy. Isam has a related form in Issam.

Walk Isam’s family in the name graph

IsamIzamIzzyIssam

Inner ring: spellings · outer: nicknames and forms.

Hover or tab through the constellation to see how each name is related. Bigger dots are names more people in the U.S. share.

Nicknames & forms 2

Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.

Spellings & scripts 1

The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.

People named Isam

Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.

Similar names

If you love Isam, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.

Arabic · Modern

Imam

Imam is a surname from Arabic. It is used in English and Indonesian.

0Not recently recorded

>99% boys

Arabic · Modern

Iqbal

Iqbal is a masculine given name from Arabic.

0Not recently recorded

>99% boys

Arabic · Modern

Hicham

Hicham is a masculine given name from Arabic. It is used in French.

0Not recently recorded

>99% boys

Arabic · Modern

Aqil

Aqil is a masculine given name from Arabic.

11Very rare

>99% boys

Arabic · Modern

Rijad

Rijad is a masculine given name from Arabic. It is used in Serbo-Croatian.

0Not recently recorded

>99% boys

Arabic · Modern

Obaid

Obaid is a surname from Arabic.

0Not recently recorded

>99% boys

Arabic · Modern

Abed

“servant, worshipper”

0Not recently recorded

>99% boys

Arabic · Modern

Billal

Billal is a masculine given name from Arabic. It is used in French.

0Not recently recorded

>99% boys

Sibling ideas

Names that share Isam’s feel without repeating its first letter or rhyming with it.

A brother for Isam

A sister for Isam