Jame
Masculine · “supplanter”
Jame is given to both — 3,430 boys and 403 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
The s in James is not a plural and never was. It came off the end of a Late Latin form of Jacob, traveled through Old French, and stuck. Jame is what the name looks like with that ending taken back off, which no language ever actually did.
How old is the name Jame?
Jame first appears in US birth records in 1903 — 122 years ago. The typical Jame alive today was born around 1958, making them about 67 years old. About 2,100 people named Jame are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jame most popular?
Jame peaked in 1940, reaching #802 nationally. See the whole 1940 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yaakov to Jame
The story of Jame
Latin had Iacobus for the patriarch and Iacomus for the apostle — the same name written two ways, with the second reflecting a spoken variant. Old French took Iacomus, softened it, and produced James, keeping the final consonant of the Latin nominative case as though it were part of the word. That is why English has James and Jacob as two separate names when every other language treats them as one, and why Spanish has Jaime and Santiago from the same source. Jame is a twentieth-century American spelling, recorded mostly for boys with a real minority of girls, so it may be doing duty for James or for Jamie.
Meaning
supplanter, one who takes the heel
The Hebrew Yaakov is the source, and the meaning passes through Greek, Latin and French unchanged. Everything that happened to the name after that happened to its ending rather than its sense.
How the name formed
- Yaakov
- Iacomus
- James
- Jame
Related forms: Jaime · Giacomo · Jacques
Pronouncing Jame
JAYM
One syllable, rhyming with name. Some families give it two, JAY-mee, treating the spelling as a short form of Jamie.
Nicknames for Jame
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
- 1903
- Most boys named
- 195873 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #802reached in 1940
- Change vs 2017
- +20.0%6 in 2024, from 5
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.
Jame in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Jaime in Spanish — related form
- Giacomo in Italian — related form
- Jacques in French — related form
James among us
people named Jame 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
Jame 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
- Every sound in it is familiar and the name is read at sight.
- It sits behind one of the most-used names in the English-speaking world.
- Four letters, and it fits in front of almost any surname.
- James and Jamie are both close enough to be written instead, constantly.
- The spelling is recorded for girls as well as boys in the United States.
- It reads as an abbreviation, and forms will ask whether something is missing.
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What they receive
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Jame
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many James are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,100 people named Jame are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Jame in 2025?
- Jame is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Jame with classmates?
- Jame 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 Jame? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jame and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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