Name Awesome

Yair

#1,450 in 2025Boys' name

He will light up

Yair has been given to 5,042 babies in the U.S. since 1976. In 2025 it ranked #1,450 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2006, with 311 recorded.

Babies named Yair, 2025

1 in 26,700

Yair over time, 1880–2025

Boys
010020030040018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Yair: meaning, origin, and history

He will light up

Hebrew

What Yair means

Yair means “he will light up”.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

Transliteration of Hebrew יַאִיר, meaning "he will light up".

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Yair (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Yair is used in English. Its origins include Hebrew.

Yair comes through Hebrew יַאִיר.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include יַאִיר.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Yair is pronounced /jaʔiɹ/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 5,042 boys were recorded with the name Yair between 1976 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 311 in 2006; its best national rank was #706 in 2006.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #1,555 in 2020 to #1,450 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #1,161 in 2015 to #1,450 in 2025.

How common is Yair?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 26,700
124 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 13,800
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#1,450
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
18,533 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Yair sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 5002%

Put another way: gather 18,533 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Yair. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Yairs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Yair was born before 2010 — so the typical Yair is around 15 today.

Median birth year
2010
About 15 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
42.3% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
91.7%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
5,042
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 42.3% of all recorded uses (2,133).

Is Yair rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−46
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
+105
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
−289
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.77×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
39.9%
Peak was 2006 (311)
Years since peak
19
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
14.4% average annual change
Best rank ever
#706
2006

Spellings of Yair

Yair is not the most common spelling — Kai is, with 16.1% against Yair's 1.2%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Yair is used

Across 2016–2025, Yair was most concentrated in California — about 1 in 7,143 boys, against 1 in 9,741 across all states with data. It was least common in Oklahoma (1 in 33,333).

314 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in 7,143
  2. 2New York1 in 7,692
  3. 3Texas1 in 7,692
  4. 4Illinois1 in 8,333
  5. 5New Jersey1 in 9,091
  6. 6Georgia1 in 12,500
  7. 7Arizona1 in 14,286
  8. 8Maryland1 in 14,286

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings.

Yair around the world

Where Yair ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2024
    #3,255
    in 2024
  • France
    1986–2025
    #3,706
    in 2025
  • Canada
    2018–2018
    #2,748
    in 2018

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Statistics Canada. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Yair

People whose public names include Yair, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Yair by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#1,450
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 105
Best rank ever
#706
2006
Peak year
2006
311 that year
First recorded
1976
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
5,042
Count in 2025
124

Names similar to Yair

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

JairZyairAdairBlairZairKyairAldairUzairClairUmairSyairAlistairSairZubairOmairYaidenJyairNyairZiairJhairKhairZuhairAmairSinclair

Names with a curve like Yair

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Yair, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

HaidenMalakiKaelTeaganKyanJavionCamrynDavianKaedenKrishRyleeAydan

Sibling names for Yair

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Yair

Top names of 2006, Yair's peak yearThe 2000s in fullOther names that peaked in 2006Boys' names starting with YHebrew Boy Names