Jacob
Masculine · “he grasps the heel”
Jacob is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 988,227 boys against 2,305 girls since 1880. See Jacob as a girl 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 was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Jacob alive today was born around 1998, making them about 27 years old. About 929,000 people named Jacob are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jacob most popular?
Jacob peaked in 1999, reaching #1 nationally. Today it ranks #43, 42 places below that high. See the whole 1999 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.
Cultural footprint
Jacob Grimm (b. 1785) — Half of the fairy-tale Brothers Grimm
Jacob Elordi (b. 1997) — Euphoria and Saltburn star
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 199836,031 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1reached in 1999
- Change vs 2022
- −19.8%6,152 in 2025, from 7,667
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
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York. International figures from Statistics Canada, Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland. Sources
Jacobs among us
people named Jacob are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 278 born in 2025 was named Jacob
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The James test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jacob's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: James climbed just as high around 1940, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and James's path sketches the road Jacob is walking now.
Jacob has held the top-100 across 7 different decades — it has never depended on fashion, and names like that read the same at any age.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Jacob is headed
Jacob is easing off slowly — about 17% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Jacob beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jacob in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
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
Masculine · #43 in the U.S.
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 929,000 people named Jacob are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Jacob in 2025?
- Jacob ranks #43 among US boy names in 2025, with 6,152 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Jacob?
- About 1 in every 278 US boys born in 2025 was named Jacob — 6,152 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jacob with classmates?
- Jacob will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jacob
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Roman#42 · Miles#44 · Dylan#41 · Carter#45 · Bennett#40 · Anthony#46 · Mason#39 · Isaac#47
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; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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