Jasper
Masculine · “treasure-bearer”
Jasper is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 62,428 boys against 1,246 girls since 1880. See Jasper as a girl name
Jasper reached English through the Magi: in Western Christian tradition the three wise men were named Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, and Caspar softened into Jasper on English tongues by the late Middle Ages. The same spelling belongs to a banded stone that has been carved since antiquity, and to towns and a mountain park in North America. Two syllables, a crisp start and a soft finish — it says itself the first time anyone reads it.
How old is the name Jasper?
Jasper was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Jasper is a kid of about 12 — this name's wave is very recent. About 49,000 people named Jasper are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jasper most popular?
Jasper peaked in 2023, reaching #122 nationally. Today it ranks #129, 7 places below that high. See the whole 2023 chart.
Where it comes from
From Gaspar to Jasper
The story of Jasper
The three visitors in the Gospel of Matthew are unnamed; the names Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar were attached to them in Latin and Greek church tradition in the early medieval centuries, and from there Caspar spread across Europe as a Christian given name. English speakers turned the hard C into a J, producing Jaspar and then Jasper, in use in England from the fifteenth century onward. It traveled to America with English settlers and has never fallen out of the records since collection began. In the twentieth century the painter Jasper Johns gave it a second life as a distinctly American first name.
Meaningscholars disagree
treasure-bearer, treasurer
The leading reading traces Caspar/Jasper to an Old Persian word for a treasurer or treasure-bringer — fitting for a wise man arriving with gifts. A second thread points to the gemstone jasper, which came into Greek as iaspis from a Semitic source and has its own separate history; the two have shared a spelling long enough that many families take the stone as the meaning.
Cultural footprint
Jasper Johns (b. 1930) — Painted the American flag into art history
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- Gaspar
- Caspar
- Jaspar
- Jasper
Related forms: Gaspar · Gaspard · Casper · Kaspar · Kacper · Gaspare
Pronouncing Jasper
JAS-per
Stress on the first syllable, rhyming with the stone. Speakers of Spanish, French and Polish will reach for their own version — Gaspar, Gaspard, Kacper — but the English pronunciation gives almost no one trouble.
Nicknames for Jasper
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 20222,919 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #122reached in 2023
- Change vs 2022
- −3.9%2,804 in 2025, from 2,919
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.
Jasper in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Gaspar in Spanish — same name
- Gaspard in French — same name
- Casper in Dutch — same name
- Kaspar in German — same name
- Kacper in Polish — same name
- Gaspare in Italian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York. International figures from Office for National Statistics, Statistics Canada. Sources
Jaspers among us
people named Jasper are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 609 born in 2025 was named Jasper
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 Dwight test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jasper's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Dwight climbed just as high around 1953, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Dwight's path sketches the road Jasper is walking now.
Jasper 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 Jasper is headed
Jasper should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
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.
Jasper beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jasper in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way it sounds and known to nearly every English speaker, so it survives phone calls and roll call without correction.
- Has a documented line back to medieval England and, through Caspar, to early church tradition — an unbroken record rather than a recent coinage.
- Exists in six or more European languages as Gaspar, Gaspard, Kaspar, Kacper, so relatives abroad have a native form to use.
- Also charts in England and Wales and in Canada, which makes it readable across the English-speaking world.
- Short forms already exist in real use — Jazz, Jas — so a child is not stuck with the full name or an invented one.
- Its wave is very recent, so most people carrying the name right now are children. Anyone expecting Jasper to read as an established grown-up name may need to wait for this generation to grow into it.
- It doubles as a stone, a mountain park and a handful of American towns. That is charming to some ears and slightly place-name-ish to others.
- Casper — the continental spelling, and the cartoon ghost — is close enough that some people will hear or write it that way.
- Familiar without being everywhere: a Jasper will likely be the only one in his class, which means explaining nothing, but also sharing nothing.
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What they receive
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Jasper
Masculine · #129 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jaspers are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 49,000 people named Jasper are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Jasper in 2025?
- Jasper ranks #129 among US boy names in 2025, with 2,804 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jasper?
- About 1 in every 609 US boys born in 2025 was named Jasper — 2,804 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jasper with classmates?
- Jasper will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jasper
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Hunter#130 · Jonah#128 · Jordan#131 · Landon#127 · Calvin#132 · George#126 · Ryder#132 · Dean#125
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jasper? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jasper and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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