Ismail
A widespread Muslim given name and surname from the name of Ishmael, meaning “God will hear.”
The #5,668 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 50,399 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Ismail is the Arabic form of the biblical name Ishmael, from Hebrew Yishma'el, usually explained as “God will hear” or “God has heard.” As a surname, it typically began as a patronymic, identifying someone as the descendant or family member of a man named Ismail. The name spread widely through Muslim communities across the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.
History
Because Ismail is one of the major prophetic names in Islam, it became a common personal name and later a hereditary surname in many Muslim societies. Modern bearers of the surname are found across a broad geographic range, especially in Arabic-speaking countries, the Indian subcontinent, and Southeast Asia. In some places it may also reflect local spelling conventions for the same underlying name.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same name appears in both the Hebrew Bible and the Quran, which helped make it one of the most widely used names across different religious traditions.
Notable people named Ismail
- Sherif Ismail (1955–2023)
Sourced from Wikidata; linked to their Wikipedia page.