Jac
Masculine · “God is gracious”
Jac is how Welsh writes Jack. Welsh has no k, so the sound is spelled with a c, and Jac is an ordinary Welsh boys' name that looks in English like a name with a letter missing. Its American peak is 1952, and American bearers may have arrived at the spelling either from Welsh usage or by clipping Jacob and Jackson.
How old is the name Jac?
Jac first appears in US birth records in 1915 — 110 years ago. The typical Jac alive today was born around 1978, making them about 47 years old. About 500 people named Jac are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jac most popular?
Jac peaked in 1952, reaching #1856 nationally. Today it ranks #5861, 4,005 places below that high. See the whole 1952 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yohanan to Jac
The story of Jac
Welsh orthography uses no k, no q, no v and no z, so English names borrowed into Welsh are respelled: Jack becomes Jac, Mark becomes Marc, and the spelling is not a variant but the correct Welsh form. Jac has been an ordinary Welsh name for generations and is currently among the most popular boys' names in Wales. In America the spelling arrives by two routes: Welsh families keeping their own orthography, and English-speaking families clipping a longer name and dropping the k as unnecessary. The 1952 peak sits in the middle of a period when short, blunt men's names were fashionable, which is likely the larger part of the American story.
Meaningscholars disagree
God is gracious, through John
Jack's own derivation was argued over for a long time and is now largely settled: it comes from Jankin, a medieval diminutive of John, by way of Jakin and Jak, rather than from the French Jacques as was once thought. So the meaning descends from Hebrew Yohanan, 'Yahweh is gracious'. A minority of bearers do descend from Jacob instead, which is a different name from a different root, and on modern American birth certificates Jac may be a clipping of either.
How the name formed
- Yohanan
- John
- Jankin
- Jack
- Jac
Related forms: Jac · Jack · Jacques · Jaap
Pronouncing Jac
JAK
One syllable, rhyming with back, exactly as Jack. The c is hard. Welsh and English speakers say it identically; only the spelling differs.
Nicknames for Jac
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
- 1915
- Most boys named
- 195618 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1856reached in 1952
- Change vs 2024
- +36.4%15 in 2025, from 11
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.
Jac in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Jac in Welsh — same name
- Jack in English — spelling variant
- Jacques in French — related form
- Jaap in Dutch — related form
Jacs among us
people named Jac are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 113,872 born in 2025 was named Jac
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Jac
- #5861
- Jac on the 2025 chart
- #17
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Jac went to 15 boys in 2025, but Jack is the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 8,785, which makes it the 17th most-given boys’ name of the year — 5,844 places above the chart.
- Jack8,748
- Jac15
and 1 rarer spelling.
About 1 boy in 194 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 113,872 for Jac 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
The Orlen test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jac's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Orlen climbed just as high around 1934, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Orlen's path sketches the road Jac is walking now.
Jac 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
Jac beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jac in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Three letters and one syllable, immediately sayable by anyone who sees it.
- It is the correct Welsh spelling rather than an invented respelling.
- It works equally as a standalone name or as the short form of Jacob or Jackson.
- It will be written Jack by almost everyone taking it down.
- English readers may treat the missing k as an error rather than a Welsh spelling.
- One-syllable names leave a bearer with no nickname in reserve.
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Jac
Masculine · #5861 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jacs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Jac are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Jac?
- Jac is one of 2 recorded spellings. Jack is the more common one — 8,748 births in 2025 against 15 for Jac.
- How popular is the name Jac in 2025?
- Jac ranks #5861 among US boy names in 2025, with 15 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jac?
- About 1 in every 113,872 US boys born in 2025 was named Jac — 15 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jac with classmates?
- Jac will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jac
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Eber#5861 · Wilton#5861 · Ruby#5861 · Stacy#5861 · Garner#5861 · Caldwell#5861 · Severin#5861 · Newton#5861
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jac? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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