David and Sarah are the most common baby names given to Jewish boys and girls since the founding of the modern State of Israel in 1948, the Population and Immigration Authority reported Wednesday.
Among Israeli Jews, David has been the most common name given to newborn boys over the past 77 years, followed by Yosef, according to Interior Ministry data. Those two were followed by Moshe, Avraham, Yitzhak and Yaakov, with Michael, Daniel, Chaim and Shlomo rounding out the top 10 for Jewish boys.
The biblical name most often given to newborn girls since the founding of the modern state – including among Arab Israelis – was Sarah, followed by Jewish names Rachel, Miriam and Esther. Channah rounded out the top five, followed by Rivka, Yael, Michal, Tamar and Leah.
Israel’s population exceeded 10 million in 2024, but the war with Hamas in Gaza and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, as well as rocket and missile attacks by other Iranian proxies, caused large numbers of people to move abroad, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported in January.
The population reached a total of 10,027,000 at the end of 2024, including 7.7 million Jews (76.9%), 2.1 million Arabs (21%) and 216,000 foreigners. Last year, about 181,000 children were born, while 51,400 people died.
Biblical names abroad
Of course, biblical names are also very popular in the West due to its long Christian history. Names like David, Michael, Daniel, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah and Rachel are likewise exceedingly common in the English-speaking world.
One biblical name that is common in the West but which can sound odd to Israelis is Noah.
Noa without the ‘h’ – which is how Westerners pronounce it – is a popular girl’s name in Israel. The popular biblical figure Noah () is pronounced ‘Noach’ in Hebrew and is not a popular baby name in Israel.
Noa is also a biblical name, being derived from one of the Daughters of Zelophehad mentioned in Numbers chapter 36.
Noa (נעה) means “moving” or “movement”; Noah (נוח) means “comfort.”
Want more news from Israel?
Click Here to sign up for our FREE daily email newsletter
