Jabez
Masculine · “He causes pain”
Jabez is a name given for a reason, and the reason is stated: his mother called him that because she bore him in pain. He appears for two verses in a genealogy in Chronicles, prays a short prayer, and is never mentioned again.
How old is the name Jabez?
Jabez was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Jabez alive today was born around 2005, making them about 20 years old. About 1,100 people named Jabez are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jabez most popular?
Jabez peaked in 1880, reaching #909 nationally. Today it ranks #5399, 4,490 places below that high. See the whole 1880 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yaʿbēṣ to Jabez
The story of Jabez
The two verses about Jabez sit inside a long genealogy and are startling for it: he is called more honorable than his brothers, he prays to be blessed and to be kept from harm so that it may not pain him, and God grants it. English Puritans took up the name along with the rest of the obscure biblical stock, and it was steady in America through the nineteenth century, peaking in 1880. Bruce Wilkinson's The Prayer of Jabez, published in 2000, sold many millions of copies and gave the name a brief second visibility, though not a comparable revival in the birth records.
Meaning
He causes pain; born in pain
From Hebrew Yaʿbēṣ. First Chronicles 4:9 explains the name from ʿōṣeb, pain or sorrow, with the consonants reversed — a wordplay rather than a strict derivation, but the text's own explanation and the standard reading. The passage is unusual in giving both the name and its motivation in one sentence.
How the name formed
- Yaʿbēṣ
- Jabez
Related forms: יַעְבֵּץ · Jabes
Pronouncing Jabez
JAY-bez
Two syllables, stress on the first. Hebrew puts the weight on the second and gives the opening a y sound, yah-BETS, which no English bearer uses.
Nicknames for Jabez
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 2002102 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #909reached in 1880
- Change vs 2024
- +13.3%17 in 2025, from 15
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Jabez in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- יַעְבֵּץ in Hebrew — transliteration
- Jabes in Spanish — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Florida, Texas.
Jabezs among us
people named Jabez are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 100,475 born in 2025 was named Jabez
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Jabez
- #5399
- Jabez on the 2025 chart
- #903
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Jabez went to 17 boys in 2025, but Jabes is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 25, which makes it the 903rd most-given boys’ name of the year — 4,496 places above the chart.
- Jabez17
- Jabes8
About 1 boy in 68,323 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 100,475 for Jabez itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Jabez sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Jabez beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jabez in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is genuinely biblical and almost nobody else has it.
- The story attached to it is short, memorable and unusual.
- Two syllables and five letters keep it simple.
- The meaning is pain, which is a heavy thing for a name to carry.
- It is unfamiliar to most Americans and will be spelled out.
- The bestselling book has attached it firmly to a particular religious movement.
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Jabez
Masculine · #5399 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jabezs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Jabez are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Jabez?
- Jabez is the most-used spelling in US records — 17 of the 25 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Jabes.
- How popular is the name Jabez in 2025?
- Jabez ranks #5399 among US boy names in 2025, with 17 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jabez?
- About 1 in every 100,475 US boys born in 2025 was named Jabez — 17 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jabez with classmates?
- Jabez will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jabez
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Frazier#5399 · Franz#5399 · Demetrio#5399 · Rolan#5399 · Rayvon#5399 · Riddick#5399 · Laramie#5399 · Soloman#5399
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jabez? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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