Jeffery
Masculine · “Peace”
Jeffery is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 230,549 boys against 1,269 girls since 1880. See Jeffery as a girl name
Nobody can say for certain what Geoffrey means, because it is not one name. At least two and probably three separate Germanic compounds fell together in medieval French, and scholars have been trying to pull them apart for a hundred and fifty years without success.
How old is the name Jeffery?
Jeffery first appears in US birth records in 1894 — 131 years ago. The typical Jeffery alive today was born around 1968, making them about 57 years old. About 196,000 people named Jeffery are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jeffery most popular?
Jeffery peaked in 1966, reaching #42 nationally. Today it ranks #1554, 1,512 places below that high. See the whole 1966 chart.
Where it comes from
From Gaufrid to Jeffery
The story of Jeffery
One Geoffrey gave a dynasty its name by accident. Geoffrey, count of Anjou, married the daughter of the English king and is said to have worn a sprig of the yellow broom that grows on poor soil, planta genista in Latin, in his hat. The nickname attached to him, then to his descendants, and several centuries later antiquarians applied it retrospectively to the whole line of English kings who came from him, none of whom used it of themselves. So the name of one of the great dynasties of European history is a joke about a wild shrub and a hat, and it comes attached to a man called Geoffrey who never ruled England at all.
Meaningscholars disagree
Peace, plus something unsettled
The second element is agreed: it is the word for peace that also stands in Frederick and Godfrey. The first is not. Candidates include a word for territory, a word for a traveler, a word for a pledge and the word for God, and each is supported by different medieval spellings of what may or may not be the same name. The honest position is that the first half is genuinely unresolved.
How the name formed
- Gaufrid
- Geoffrey
- Jeffrey
- Jeffery
Related forms: Geoffroy · Goffredo · Godofredo · Gottfried
Pronouncing Jeffery
JEF-ree
Two syllables in speech and three on the page in this spelling, since the e between the f and the r is not usually said. Jeffrey, Jeffery and Geoffrey are all pronounced identically by most Americans.
Nicknames for Jeffery
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
- 1894
- Most boys named
- 19618,923 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #42reached in 1966
- Change vs 2023
- −28.1%110 in 2025, from 153
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.
Jeffery in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Geoffroy in French — same name
- Goffredo in Italian — same name
- Godofredo in Spanish — related form
- Gottfried in German — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Georgia.
Jefferys among us
people named Jeffery are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 15,528 born in 2025 was named Jeffery
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 Jimmy test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jeffery's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jimmy climbed just as high around 1944, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jimmy's path sketches the road Jeffery is walking now.
Jeffery 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 Jeffery is headed
Jeffery is easing off slowly — about 15% 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.
Jeffery beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jeffery in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The spoken name is completely established and never needs to be repeated aloud.
- Jeff is short, plain and universally understood, and works from childhood to old age.
- The name is recognizable in French, Italian, Spanish and German with only small changes.
- Three spellings are in wide use and this one is the middle option, so it will be got wrong both ways.
- The extra e is silent, which makes the spelling hard to defend in speech.
- The record carries this spelling for girls in small numbers as well, so it is not an absolute signal.
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What they receive
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Jeffery
Masculine · #1554 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jefferys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 196,000 people named Jeffery are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Jeffery in 2025?
- Jeffery ranks #1554 among US boy names in 2025, with 110 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jeffery?
- About 1 in every 15,528 US boys born in 2025 was named Jeffery — 110 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jeffery with classmates?
- Jeffery will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jeffery
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Navy#1554 · Rylen#1554 · Emmet#1554 · Kysen#1554 · Zayvion#1554 · Paulo#1554 · Cypress#1554 · Youssef#1554
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jeffery? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jeffery and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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