Jamison
Masculine · “son of James”
Jamison is given to both — 20,796 boys and 1,944 girls since 1880. See Jamison as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Jamison is a surname turned first name, and the surname says exactly what it means: son of James. That makes it one of the rare modern-sounding boys' names with a fully documented ancestry running back through medieval England to the Hebrew Jacob. In the mouth it splits neatly into three beats, with the familiar James sitting right at the front.
How old is the name Jamison?
Jamison first appears in US birth records in 1931 — 94 years ago. The typical Jamison alive today was born around 2008, making them about 17 years old. About 20,000 people named Jamison are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jamison most popular?
Jamison peaked in 1973, reaching #408 nationally. Today it ranks #785, 377 places below that high. See the whole 1973 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Ya'aqov to Jamison
The story of Jamison
Jamison began in Scotland and northern England as a patronymic surname — Jameson, Jamieson, Jamison — recording a man as the son of someone called James. James had arrived in Britain through Latin Iacomus, a late reshaping of Iakobos, the Greek form of Hebrew Ya'aqov, and the name spread widely once Scottish kings carried it. Families bearing the surname emigrated in large numbers to North America, and there, as with so many Scots-Irish surnames, it crossed over into use as a given name. Its American record as a first name is unbroken across several generations now, and it is presently easing back from its high point rather than vanishing.
Meaning
son of James
The surname is a straightforward patronymic. The meaning of James itself, back through Latin Iacomus to Hebrew Ya'aqov, is the older puzzle — traditionally read as 'holder of the heel' or 'supplanter', from the account of Jacob's birth in Genesis.
How the name formed
- Ya'aqov
- Iakobos
- Iacomus
- James
- Jamison
Related forms: Jameson · Jamieson · Jamison
Pronouncing Jamison
JAY-mi-sun
Three syllables, stress on the first. Some speakers say JAY-muh-sun; both are ordinary and neither needs correcting.
Nicknames for Jamison
High
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
- 1931
- Most boys named
- 2017712 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #408reached in 1973
- Change vs 2023
- −22.1%324 in 2025, from 416
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.
Jamison in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Jameson in English — spelling variant
- Jamieson in Scottish — spelling variant
- Jamison in English — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Ohio, California.
Jamisons among us
people named Jamison are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 5,272 born in 2025 was named Jamison
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 Evert test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jamison's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Evert climbed just as high around 1901, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Evert's path sketches the road Jamison is walking now.
Jamison 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 Jamison is headed
Jamison is easing off slowly — about 24% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
Medium 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.
Jamison beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jamison in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is plain and unarguable — son of James — which is rarer than parents expect among surname-style names.
- Ready-made short forms already in wide use: Jamie, Jay, and James itself.
- Documented line back through medieval Britain to the Hebrew Ya'aqov, with no gaps that need guessing at.
- Recognizable on first hearing because James sits at the front of it; nobody will ask what it is.
- A steady presence in American records across several generations, familiar without being crowded.
- Three spellings compete — Jamison, Jameson, Jamieson — and all three are legitimate. Expect to spell it aloud fairly often, and expect forms and email addresses to guess wrong.
- Jameson is also a well-known Irish whiskey. This spelling sidesteps it, but people who mishear will sometimes make the connection anyway.
- Jamie, the natural short form, is used for girls as well as boys. That bothers some families and not others; it is worth deciding how you feel before it happens.
- In most classrooms he will be the only Jamison, which some children enjoy and others would rather trade for a name three friends share.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Jamison to the vote.
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What they receive
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Jamison
Masculine · #785 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jamisons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 20,000 people named Jamison are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Jamison in 2025?
- Jamison ranks #785 among US boy names in 2025, with 324 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jamison?
- About 1 in every 5,272 US boys born in 2025 was named Jamison — 324 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jamison with classmates?
- Jamison will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jamison
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Alonso#785 · Tony#783 · Skyler#783 · Remi#787 · Darius#788 · Elisha#788 · Blaze#781 · Kyree#781
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jamison? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jamison and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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