Jacquelyn
Feminine · “heel-holder”
Jacquelyn is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 85,197 girls against 110 boys since 1880.
Jacquelyn is Jacqueline with an American ending. The parent is the French feminine of Jacques, which is James, which is Jacob — three languages between the spelling and the patriarch.
How old is the name Jacquelyn?
Jacquelyn first appears in US birth records in 1907 — 118 years ago. The typical Jacquelyn alive today was born around 1965, making them about 60 years old. About 68,500 people named Jacquelyn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jacquelyn most popular?
Jacquelyn peaked in 1951, reaching #163 nationally. Today it ranks #2276, 2,113 places below that high. See the whole 1951 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Ya'aqov to Jacquelyn
The story of Jacquelyn
Jacqueline was a name of the French and Burgundian nobility and came into English use in the twentieth century, rising very sharply in the 1950s and 1960s. American families respelled it heavily — Jacquelyn, Jaclyn, Jackalyn — and Jacquelyn appears in the registers in real numbers, peaking in the early 1960s alongside the French original.
Meaning
heel-holder, supplanter
Through Jacqueline and Jacques, from the Latin Iacomus and so from the Hebrew Ya'aqov. Genesis explains it by the birth of twins, the younger gripping the elder's heel. French added -line to Jacques to make the feminine; this spelling swaps that for the -lyn that American naming favored.
How the name formed
- Ya'aqov
- Jacques
- Jacqueline
- Jacquelyn
Related forms: Jacqueline · Jaclyn · Jacoba
Pronouncing Jacquelyn
JAK-uh-lin
Three syllables, stress on the first. Jacqueline is said the same way in American English; the -lyn spelling simply writes the ending phonetically.
Nicknames for Jacquelyn
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
- 1907
- Most girls named
- 19511,906 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #163reached in 1951
- Change vs 2023
- −13.0%80 in 2025, from 92
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.
Jacquelyn in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Jacqueline in French — spelling variant
- Jaclyn in English — spelling variant
- Jacoba in Dutch — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Jacquelyns among us
people named Jacquelyn are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 20,091 born in 2025 was named Jacquelyn
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Jacquelyn
- #2276
- Jacquelyn on the 2025 chart
- #841
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Jacquelyn went to 80 girls in 2025, but Jacquelynn, Jaquelin and Jacquelin and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 5 spellings went to 119, which makes it the 841st most-given girls’ name of the year — 1,435 places above the chart.
- Jacquelyn80
- Jacquelynn14
- Jaquelin12
- Jacquelin8
- Jaquelyn5
About 1 girl in 13,506 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 20,091 for Jacquelyn 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 Laverne test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jacquelyn's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Laverne climbed just as high around 1928, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Laverne's path sketches the road Jacquelyn is walking now.
Jacquelyn 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
Where Jacquelyn is headed
Jacquelyn 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.
Jacquelyn beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jacquelyn in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Jacqueline stands behind it as a documented French noble name with a deep record.
- It reaches one of the best-documented names in the Hebrew Bible by a genuinely interesting route.
- Jackie is available as a short form with an enormous independent record.
- Jacqueline is the standard spelling and this one reads as a variant.
- It is closely dated to the middle of the twentieth century.
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What they receive
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Jacquelyn
Feminine · #2276 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jacquelyns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 68,500 people named Jacquelyn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Jacquelyn?
- Jacquelyn is the most-used spelling in US records — 80 of the 119 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Jacquelynn, Jaquelin, Jacquelin and Jaquelyn.
- How popular is the name Jacquelyn in 2025?
- Jacquelyn ranks #2276 among US girl names in 2025, with 80 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jacquelyn?
- About 1 in every 20,091 US girls born in 2025 was named Jacquelyn — 80 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jacquelyn with classmates?
- Jacquelyn will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jacquelyn
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Johana#2276 · Haizley#2276 · Nyah#2276 · Leonie#2276 · Lavinia#2276 · Analise#2276 · Ollie#2276 · Sayla#2276
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jacquelyn? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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