Jamey
Masculine · “he grasps the heel”
Jamey is given to both — 6,755 boys and 3,053 girls since 1880. See Jamey as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Two English words come from this name and mean quite different things. Jacobean is the reign of James the First; Jacobite is a supporter of the James who lost the throne eighty years later. Both are just the Latin form of the name, Jacobus, with an ending — and between them they cover a century of British argument.
How old is the name Jamey?
Jamey first appears in US birth records in 1944 — 81 years ago. The typical Jamey alive today was born around 1976, making them about 49 years old. About 6,100 people named Jamey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jamey most popular?
Jamey peaked in 1976, reaching #369 nationally. Today it ranks #4249, 3,880 places below that high. See the whole 1976 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yaakov to Jamey
The story of Jamey
Scotland had seven kings called James in a row, which made the name Scottish in a way it never quite became English, and Jamie is the Scots diminutive. When the last of that line was deposed in 1688 his supporters were called Jacobites, from the Latin form of his name, and they spent sixty years trying to put the family back — two risings, several plots and a very large body of songs. Jacobean, from the same Latin, refers instead to the reign of the first James in England and the drama, furniture and Bible translation that came with it. One name, two adjectives, and no obvious way to guess which is which.
Meaning
he grasps the heel
James is Jacob by a different road: Hebrew Yaakov, from a root meaning heel, through Greek and a late Latin form in which the b became an m. Jamey is the Scots pet form Jamie with the -ey spelling, and it serves either child.
How the name formed
- Yaakov
- Iacomus
- James
- Jamie
- Jamey
Related forms: Jamie · Jaime · Giacomo
Pronouncing Jamey
JAY-mee
Two syllables, stress on the first. Jamey, Jamie and Jaymie are said identically. Spanish Jaime is HY-meh, which is a different name in speech though the same one on paper.
Nicknames for Jamey
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
- 1944
- Most boys named
- 1976430 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #369reached in 1976
- Change vs 2023
- +60.0%24 in 2025, from 15
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.
Jamey in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Jamie in Scottish — same name
- Jaime in Spanish — related form
- Giacomo in Italian — related form
Jameys among us
people named Jamey are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 71,170 born in 2025 was named Jamey
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 Milford test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jamey's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Milford climbed just as high around 1904, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Milford's path sketches the road Jamey is walking now.
Jamey 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
Jamey beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jamey in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled Hebrew meaning explained in the source text.
- It serves either child, and the records show a real share of both.
- James is available as a formal version with a very long record.
- Jamie is far commoner and this spelling will be corrected toward it.
- It leans to boys but takes a real minority of girls, so a form will guess and will sometimes be wrong.
- It is a pet form used as a full name, which reads as informal on paper.
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What they receive
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Jamey
Masculine · #4249 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jameys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 6,100 people named Jamey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Jamey in 2025?
- Jamey ranks #4249 among US boy names in 2025, with 24 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jamey?
- About 1 in every 71,170 US boys born in 2025 was named Jamey — 24 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jamey with classmates?
- Jamey will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jamey
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Guadalupe#4249 · Denny#4249 · Hughes#4249 · Erling#4249 · Rodrick#4249 · Elric#4249 · Ron#4249 · Wright#4249
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jamey? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jamey and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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