Issa

Issa is the 5,950th most common surname in the United States, shared by 5,575 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 53,600.

By the numbers

People: 5,575
Rank: 5,950th
How common: 1 in 53,600
Per 100,000: 1.9

Where the name comes from

Origin Arabic

From Arabic عيسى (“Jesus”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Who bears the name

How people with the surname Issa described their own race and Hispanic origin at the 2020 census:

White, not Hispanic 69.5%
Black, not Hispanic 18.5%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 4.9%
Hispanic or Latino 4.8%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 2.3%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.04%

Notable people called Issa

Kobayashi Issa (1763–1828)Japanese writer
Marwan Issa (1965–2024)Hamas military commander
Pierre Issa (born 1975)South African footballer
Darrell Issa (born 1953)American politician, inventor and entrepreneur
Abdullahi Issa (1922–1988)Prime Minister of the Trust Territory of Somalia , the Designer of the Somali Flag & the party Leader of S.Y.L ( Somali Youth League) ,(Born in 1922 and died in 1988)
Majida Issa (born 1981)Colombian actress and singer

People named Issa with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).

Also a first name

Issa has been given to 3,217 American babies as a first name since 1969, peaking in 2024. See it as a given name.

Try it on yourself

Source: US Census Bureau, Frequently Occurring Surnames, 2020. The Census describes the file as the surnames borne by 100 or more people; rarer names are not published. The line is not quite exact, and 617 published names come in under it, the smallest at 92 people. Race and Hispanic origin are self-reported. Rates are worked out against the 298.9 million people the file's own figures are calculated on, which is fewer than the census counted in all: the difference is everyone whose surname was too rare to publish.