Jacob
Feminine · “he grasps the heel”
Jacob is given to boys far more often — 988,227 boys against 2,305 girls since 1880. See Jacob as a boy name
Jacob is one of the oldest continuously used names in the West, and the man who did most to explain how names like it change over time was himself called Jacob. Jacob Grimm worked out the sound law that carries his name, and the fairy tales he is remembered for were collected as raw material for that work rather than for children.
How old is the name Jacob?
Jacob first appears in US birth records in 1911 — 114 years ago. The typical Jacob alive today was born around 1993, making them about 32 years old. About 2,200 people named Jacob are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jacob most popular?
Jacob peaked in 2004, reaching #1262 nationally. See the whole 2004 chart.
Where it comes from
From Ya'aqov to Jacob
The story of Jacob
Jacob Grimm set out to describe how German had changed, and along the way described how a whole family of languages had. The law named after him states that a set of consonants shifted in a regular, predictable way as Germanic separated from the rest of Indo-European, which is why English has father where Latin has pater and heart where Latin has cor. It was among the first demonstrations that sound change is not random drift but follows rules, and it turned philology into something closer to a science. The fairy tales came out of the same project. He and his brother were gathering spoken German from people who still had it, and the stories were the container the language arrived in.
Meaning
he grasps the heel; one who supplants
Hebrew Ya'aqov. Genesis explains it directly: the child was born holding his twin brother's heel, and the same verb is used later when he takes his brother's birthright. The name is a pun in the text, and the text says so.
How the name formed
- Ya'aqov
- Iacobus
- Jacob
Related forms: Ya'aqov · Jacobo · Giacobbe · Jakob · Jakub
Pronouncing Jacob
JAY-kub
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The spelling and the sound agree completely, and the name is essentially never mispronounced in English.
Nicknames for Jacob
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
- 1911
- Most girls named
- 2004171 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1262reached in 2004
- Change vs 2023
- +50.0%9 in 2024, from 6
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.
Jacob in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ya'aqov in Hebrew — same name
- Jacobo in Spanish — same name
- Giacobbe in Italian — same name
- Jakob in German — spelling variant
- Jakub in Polish — same name
Jacobs among us
people named Jacob are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Jacob sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It has been in continuous use for as long as there have been written records to check.
- Jake is a short form that works from childhood through to old age without effort.
- It travels: close forms exist in most European languages and are recognized on sight.
- It was extremely popular very recently, so a child now shares it with many adults.
- Jake is common enough on its own that the full name may rarely get used.
- The record holds girls as well, and the girl is much the smaller side.
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What they receive
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Jacob
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Jacobs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,200 people named Jacob are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Jacob in 2025?
- Jacob is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Jacob with classmates?
- Jacob will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More J names
The most-given names starting with J, all years combined.
Jennifer#586 · Jessica#665 · Janet#2778 · Julie#872 · Joyce#1071 · Joan#1085 · Julia#131 · Jean#2117
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jacob? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jacob and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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