Ishmael is a Hebrew name, Yishma'el, meaning "God will hear" or "God hears". In Genesis he is the son of Abraham and Hagar, revered in Islam as the ancestor of the Arabs, and in American literature he is the narrator of Moby-Dick, whose opening words are "Call me Ishmael." The name has hovered just outside the US top 1000 for decades, ranking 1017 in 2000, its best year this century, and 1469 in 2025.