Isaac Merritt Singer (October 27, 1811 – July 23, 1875) was an inventor, actor, and entrepreneur. He made important improvements in the design of the sewing machine and was the founder of the Singer Sewing Machine Company.

Isaac Singer was born in Pittstown, New York, on October 27, 1811. He was the last born child of Adam Singer and his first wife, Ruth Benson. Isaac's father may have been a German immigrant from Saxony whose surname at birth was Reisinger.

Isaac was married for the first time in 1830, to Catharine Maria Haley. Then, they moved to New York City, probably in 1831. They seem to have lived there with her parents for a time. By the summer of 1833 they had again moved, this time to Otsego County, New York. Isaac had worked in his older brother's machine shop before marriage and learnt the machinists trade there; in Otsego in the village of Fly Creek Isaac was again working in a machine shop, this time owned by George Pomeroy.