Jacqueline
Masculine · “supplanter”
Jacqueline is given to girls far more often — 426,088 girls against 1,391 boys since 1880. See Jacqueline as a girl name
Jacqueline was almost unknown in English before the twentieth century. It is a French name, built with a French feminine ending on a French form of Jacob, and English-speaking countries had no use for it until the nineteen twenties; its enormous American peak came four decades later and can be dated to a single inauguration.
How old is the name Jacqueline?
Jacqueline first appears in US birth records in 1923 — 102 years ago. The typical Jacqueline alive today was born around 1968, making them about 57 years old. About 1,100 people named Jacqueline are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jacqueline most popular?
Jacqueline peaked in 1964, reaching #1096 nationally. See the whole 1964 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From A Hebrew name behind both Jacob and James to Jacqueline
The story of Jacqueline
A young woman married a senator in nineteen fifty-three, and by the start of nineteen sixty-one she was the most photographed person in the world. The name climbed through the fifties on general fashion and then jumped sharply at the beginning of the sixties, peaking within a year of the inauguration and holding for most of the decade. What is unusual is how completely the association attached: the short form of the name became, for a generation, a specific reference rather than a general one, and the full name went from a French import to an ordinary American name in about three years. Very few names move that far that fast, and almost none of them do it on the strength of one person's visibility alone.
Meaningscholars disagree
supplanter
The name descends through Latin and Greek from the Hebrew name behind Jacob and James, and the traditional reading about supplanting is a pun made inside the biblical text rather than an etymology. Modern scholarship treats it as such. The French feminine ending contributes affection rather than sense.
How the name formed
- A Hebrew name behind both Jacob and James
- Jacques in French, with a French feminine built on it
- Almost unknown in English before the twentieth century
- A sharp American peak at the start of the nineteen sixties
Related forms: Jacqueline · Giacomina · Jacoba
Pronouncing Jacqueline
JAK-uh-lin
Three syllables in American English with the stress on the first. French says it with the stress at the back and a nasal final vowel, giving something closer to zhak-LEEN, which is a noticeably different name written with identical letters.
Nicknames for Jacqueline
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
- 1923
- Most boys named
- 198939 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1096reached in 1964
- Change vs 2007
- −37.5%5 in 2013, from 8
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.
Jacqueline in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Jacqueline in French — same name
- Giacomina in Italian — related form
- Jacoba in Spanish — related form
Jacquelines among us
people named Jacqueline 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
Jacqueline 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 is completely familiar, universally spellable and needs no explaining.
- Jackie and Jacqui are two very different registers from one certificate.
- It carries a genuine French history and a very well-documented American one.
- The association with one particular woman is total for anybody over about sixty.
- The English and French pronunciations differ considerably.
- The spelling is on the register for boys as well, in very small numbers.
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Jacqueline
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Jacquelines 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 Jacqueline are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Jacqueline in 2025?
- Jacqueline is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Jacqueline with classmates?
- Jacqueline will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More J names
The most-given names starting with J, all years combined.
James#6 · John#23 · Joseph#29 · Joshua#66 · Jason#165 · Jacob#43 · Jeffrey#552 · Jonathan#89
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jacqueline? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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