Jeffrey
Masculine · “peace”
Jeffrey is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 979,601 boys against 3,498 girls since 1880. See Jeffrey as a girl name
Jeffrey is the American spelling and Geoffrey the British one, and the split is a matter of habit rather than of history: both have been in use in both countries for centuries, and each side simply settled on a different default and now finds the other slightly foreign.
How old is the name Jeffrey?
Jeffrey first appears in US birth records in 1885 — 140 years ago. The typical Jeffrey alive today was born around 1968, making them about 57 years old. About 832,000 people named Jeffrey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jeffrey most popular?
Jeffrey peaked in 1966, reaching #9 nationally. Today it ranks #552, 543 places below that high. See the whole 1966 chart.
Where it comes from
From Gaufrid to Jeffrey
The story of Jeffrey
The name has one bearer nobody forgets. Jeffrey Hudson was born in Rutland in the seventeenth century and stopped growing at under two feet; the Duke of Buckingham's household acquired him, and at a banquet for the king and queen he was served to them concealed inside a pie, from which he emerged. Queen Henrietta Maria kept him. He then had a career nobody would have predicted: captain of horse in the Civil War, captured by pirates and enslaved in North Africa for years, and later imprisoned in London on suspicion of plotting. He grew a further foot and a half in middle age, which physicians still find interesting. He is the reason a good many English readers know the name at all.
Meaningscholars disagree
peace
The second half is certainly the Germanic word for peace. The first half is not: several different Frankish names collapsed into one form in medieval French, and no one can say which of them any particular bearer descends from.
How the name formed
- Gaufrid
- Geoffrey
- Jeffrey
Related forms: Geoffroy · Goffredo · Gottfried · Godofredo
Pronouncing Jeffrey
JEF-ree
Two syllables with the weight at the front. Jeffrey and Geoffrey are said identically, which is why the two spellings have never merged.
Nicknames for Jeffrey
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
- 1885
- Most boys named
- 196132,029 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #9reached in 1966
- Change vs 2023
- −12.5%544 in 2025, from 622
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.
Jeffrey in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Geoffroy in French — same name
- Goffredo in Italian — same name
- Gottfried in German — related form
- Godofredo in Spanish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Jeffreys among us
people named Jeffrey are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 3,140 born in 2025 was named Jeffrey
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 Ronald test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jeffrey's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ronald climbed just as high around 1941, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ronald's path sketches the road Jeffrey is walking now.
Jeffrey has held the top-100 across 6 different decades — it has never depended on fashion, and names like that read the same at any age.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Jeffrey is headed
Jeffrey is easing off slowly — about 15% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
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.
Jeffrey beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jeffrey in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Everyone can spell it and say it on first hearing across the English-speaking world.
- Jeff is one of the most established short forms in the language.
- It has a documented English history reaching back to the Norman Conquest.
- It has cousins in French, Italian, German and Spanish, so the name travels.
- Geoffrey, Jeffery and Jefferey are all live spellings, and correcting them is a lifelong task.
- It is strongly associated with the middle of the twentieth century in America.
- The spelling is recorded for a small number of girls, though it reads overwhelmingly as a boy's name.
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Jeffrey
Masculine · #552 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jeffreys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 832,000 people named Jeffrey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Jeffrey in 2025?
- Jeffrey ranks #552 among US boy names in 2025, with 544 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jeffrey?
- About 1 in every 3,140 US boys born in 2025 was named Jeffrey — 544 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jeffrey with classmates?
- Jeffrey will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jeffrey
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Drew#553 · Emir#551 · Ledger#553 · Eliseo#550 · Chosen#555 · Ozzy#548 · Devin#548 · Armando#556
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jeffrey? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jeffrey and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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