Jacobe
Masculine · “Hebrew Yaakov”
Jacob and James are the same name. Latin Iacobus developed a second form, Iacomus, in late spoken Latin; the first gave Jacob and the second gave James through French Jammes. English has both, uses them as separate names, and has done for eight hundred years.
How old is the name Jacobe?
Jacobe first appears in US birth records in 1974 — 51 years ago. The typical Jacobe alive today was born around 2003, making them about 22 years old. About 1,300 people named Jacobe are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jacobe most popular?
Jacobe peaked in 2000, reaching #1944 nationally. Today it ranks #8910, 6,966 places below that high. See the whole 2000 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yaakov to Jacobe
The story of Jacobe
The split happened in Latin. Iacobus, the church's form of the Hebrew name, developed a variant Iacomus in the spoken Latin of Gaul, with the b weakening to an m. Iacobus gave Jacob in most of Europe, and Iacomus gave Old French Jame and then English James. Because the New Testament has two important men of the name, the apostle and the brother of Jesus, and the Old Testament has the patriarch, the two forms were assigned different territory: Jacob for the patriarch and James for the apostles, in English at least. Other languages did not divide it the same way. Spanish has Jacobo and Jaime and also Santiago, from Sant Iago, which produced Diego by a further split. So one Hebrew name gave English two names and Spanish four, all of them still in use.
Meaning
Hebrew Yaakov, from aqev, the heel
Jacobe is a spelling of Jacob, Hebrew Yaakov, which Genesis explains by the story of the twin born holding his brother's heel, from aqev, a heel, and by a second pun on a verb meaning to supplant. The explanation is wordplay rather than etymology. The final e is an American addition with no effect on the sound. The peak of this spelling is 2000.
How the name formed
- Yaakov
- Iacobus
- Jacob
- Jacobe
Related forms: Jacob · James · Jacobo · Yaakov
Pronouncing Jacobe
JAY-kub
Two syllables, stress on the first. The final e is silent. Some families say juh-KOH-bee, giving the name three syllables, which the spelling permits.
Nicknames for Jacobe
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
- 1974
- Most boys named
- 200759 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1944reached in 2000
- Change vs 2024
- −11.1%8 in 2025, from 9
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.
Jacobe in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Jacob in English — spelling variant
- James in English — related form
- Jacobo in Spanish — same name
- Yaakov in Hebrew — same name
Jacobes among us
people named Jacobe are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 213,510 born in 2025 was named Jacobe
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Jacobe
- #8910
- Jacobe on the 2025 chart
- #798
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Jacobe went to 8 boys in 2025, but Jakobe is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 130, which makes it the 798th most-given boys’ name of the year — 8,112 places above the chart.
- Jakobe122
- Jacobe8
About 1 boy in 13,139 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 213,510 for Jacobe 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 Dewan test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jacobe's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Dewan climbed just as high around 1979, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Dewan's path sketches the road Jacobe is walking now.
Jacobe 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
Jacobe beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jacobe in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Jake and Coby are both established short forms.
- The name has an unbroken documented history of three thousand years.
- Jacob is available as the standard spelling.
- The final e makes the pronunciation genuinely ambiguous.
- Jacob is far commoner and reads as correct.
- The Bible's explanation of the name is a pun, not an etymology.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Jacobe to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Jacobe? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Jacobe
Masculine · #8910 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jacobes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,300 people named Jacobe are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Jacobe?
- Jacobe is one of 2 recorded spellings. Jakobe is the more common one — 122 births in 2025 against 8 for Jacobe.
- How popular is the name Jacobe in 2025?
- Jacobe ranks #8910 among US boy names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jacobe?
- About 1 in every 213,510 US boys born in 2025 was named Jacobe — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jacobe with classmates?
- Jacobe will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jacobe
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Davie#8910 · Ned#8910 · Darious#8910 · Alois#8910 · Len#8910 · Barton#8910 · Desmon#8910 · Winfield#8910
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jacobe? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jacobe and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle