David and Sarah are the most common names given to Jewish baby boys and girls, respectively, since the founding of the modern State of Israel in 1948, the Population and Immigration Authority said on Wednesday.
Among Israeli Jews, the most common name chosen for newborn boys over the past almost 77 years was David, with Yosef coming in second place, according to data gathered by the Interior Ministry. Those two were followed by Moshe, Avraham, Yitzhak and Yaakov, with Michael, Daniel, Chaim and Shlomo closing the top 10 for Jewish boys.
The biblical name most commonly given to baby girls since the modern state was founded—also among Arab Israelis—was Sarah, followed by the Jewish names of Rachel, Miriam and Esther. Channah rounded out the top five, followed by Rivkah, Yael, Michal, Tamar and Leah.
Israel’s population exceeded 10 million in 2024, but the war with Hamas in Gaza and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, along with rocket and missile attacks from other Iranian-based proxies, saw a large number of people moving abroad, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported in January.
The population reached 10,027,000 at the end of 2024, including 7.707 million Jews (76.9%), 2.1 million Arabs (21%) and 216,000 foreigners. Some 181,000 children were born last year, while 51,400 people died.
