Jedd
Masculine · “Hebrew Yedidyah”
Solomon had a second name and the Bible uses it once. In 2 Samuel 12 the prophet Nathan calls the newborn child Jedidiah, beloved of the Lord, and the text says the name was given because the Lord loved him. Then it never appears again. A name given by God in the narrative is dropped by the narrative immediately.
How old is the name Jedd?
Jedd first appears in US birth records in 1953 — 72 years ago. The typical Jedd alive today was born around 1988, making them about 37 years old. About 800 people named Jedd are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jedd most popular?
Jedd peaked in 1978, reaching #1965 nationally. Today it ranks #8243, 6,278 places below that high. See the whole 1978 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yedidyah to Jedd
The story of Jedd
The verse is odd and commentators have worried at it for a long time. Solomon is named Shelomo by his mother, a name built on shalom, peace, and then Nathan arrives with a second name from God. The text gives no explanation of why two names are needed and then uses only the first for the rest of the Bible. Some read Jedidiah as a throne name that was never adopted, others as a private or prophetic name, others as a fragment of an older tradition preserved out of context. What is not in dispute is the meaning, which is transparent: yadid is a common Hebrew word for a beloved friend, and it appears in the Psalms and the Song of Songs. The name entered English through the Puritans, who mined exactly this kind of verse, and it has been used in America continuously since.
Meaning
Hebrew Yedidyah, beloved of Yah
Jedd is a short form of Jedidiah, from Hebrew yadid, beloved, and yah, the divine name. The name is given to the infant Solomon in 2 Samuel 12:25 and occurs nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible. Jed is also used as a short form of Jedediah, Jeddediah and, occasionally, of names in Jer-. The doubled d in Jedd marks the vowel short, which it would be anyway. It peaks in 1978.
How the name formed
- Yedidyah
- Jedidiah
- Jedd
Related forms: Yedidyah · Jed
Pronouncing Jedd
jed
One syllable, short e. The doubled d is silent as a spelling choice. Jedidiah is jed-ih-DY-uh, four syllables with the stress on the third.
Nicknames for Jedd
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
- 1953
- Most boys named
- 198326 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1965reached in 1978
- Change vs 2024
- −52.6%9 in 2025, from 19
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.
Jedd in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Yedidyah in Hebrew — transliteration
- Jed in English — spelling variant
Jedds among us
people named Jedd are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 189,786 born in 2025 was named Jedd
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Jedd
- #8243
- Jedd on the 2025 chart
- #843
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Jedd went to 9 boys in 2025, but Jed is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 85, which makes it the 843rd most-given boys’ name of the year — 7,400 places above the chart.
- Jed76
- Jedd9
About 1 boy in 20,095 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 189,786 for Jedd 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 Renald test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jedd's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Renald climbed just as high around 1924, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Renald's path sketches the road Jedd is walking now.
Jedd 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
Jedd beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jedd in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable, plain and easy to say.
- Jedidiah is available as a full formal version.
- The meaning is settled and warm.
- Jed with one d is the standard spelling.
- It reads as a nickname rather than a full name.
- The name has a strong rural American association.
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Jedd
Masculine · #8243 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jedds are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Jedd are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Jedd?
- Jedd is one of 2 recorded spellings. Jed is the more common one — 76 births in 2025 against 9 for Jedd.
- How popular is the name Jedd in 2025?
- Jedd ranks #8243 among US boy names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jedd?
- About 1 in every 189,786 US boys born in 2025 was named Jedd — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jedd with classmates?
- Jedd will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jedd
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Danial#8243 · Ogden#8243 · Aaren#8243 · Trinity#8243 · Kourtney#8243 · Maury#8243 · Lindon#8243 · Elbert#8243
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jedd? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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