Issa (عيسى) is the Arabic and Swahili form of Jesus — from the Hebrew Yeshua ("the Lord is salvation"). In Islam, ʿĪsā ibn Maryam (Jesus son of Mary) is recognized as a major prophet. Issa Rae (born Jo-Issa Rae Diop, 1985) — *Senegalese-American actress, writer, producer; her self-produced 2011 YouTube web series The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl led to HBO's Insecure (2016-2021) — which she created, starred in, and produced. Five Primetime Emmy nominations; founded HOORAE Media production company in 2020. Her 2015 book The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl was a New York Times bestseller. Producer of The Photograph (2020), Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (voice, 2023), Barbie (2023). Inkwell Beach foundation supports Black homeownership. Issa Kobayashi (1763-1828) — Japanese haiku master, male. Issa Hayatou* — Cameroonian sports administrator, male.
Featured throughout 2010s-2020s American television.
Issa does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.
In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Issa reduce to 3, The Communicator. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.