Jeremiah
Masculine · “From Hebrew Yirmeyahu”
Jeremiah is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 225,674 boys against 699 girls since 1880. See Jeremiah as a girl name
Jeremiah comes into English straight out of the Hebrew prophets, kept in that fuller form by the translators of the King James Bible while everyday medieval England was calling boys Jeremy. It has four unhurried syllables that end on an open vowel, and it has been worn by an English astronomer who watched Venus cross the sun in 1639 and by a baroque composer whose trumpet tune is still played at weddings.
How old is the name Jeremiah?
Jeremiah was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Jeremiah alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 215,000 people named Jeremiah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jeremiah most popular?
Jeremiah peaked in 2011, reaching #49 nationally. Today it ranks #88, 39 places below that high. See the whole 2011 chart.
Where it comes from
From Yirmeyahu to Jeremiah
The story of Jeremiah
The name belongs first to the Hebrew prophet whose book sits among the longest in the Old Testament, written in the years around the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon. Greek translators of the Hebrew scriptures rendered Yirmeyahu as Ieremias, Latin took it as Jeremias, and medieval England wore that down to Jeremy. When English Bibles returned to the Hebrew form, Jeremiah came with them, and it traveled with English-speaking Protestants to North America, where it has been in continuous use ever since. It is well established across the Pacific and in Africa too, carried by the same missionary and scriptural routes.
Meaningscholars disagree
From Hebrew Yirmeyahu, most often read as "Yahweh will exalt"
The second half of the name is clearly the divine name Yah. The first element is the argument: most scholars take it from a root meaning to raise or exalt, giving "Yahweh will exalt" or "Yahweh lifts up"; others read it as "Yahweh throws" or "Yahweh establishes/appoints". All three readings keep God as the subject.
How the name formed
- Yirmeyahu
- Ieremias
- Jeremias
- Jeremy
- Jeremiah
Related forms: Jeremías · Jeremias · Jérémie · Geremia · Jeremias · Yirmeyahu
Pronouncing Jeremiah
jer-uh-MY-uh
Four syllables with the stress on the third. The opening J is the English soft J, not the Hebrew Y — Yirmeyahu keeps that. Spanish and Portuguese speakers will stress it differently and say Jeremías, ending in an s.
Nicknames for Jeremiah
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
- 20107,743 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #49reached in 2011
- Change vs 2022
- −1.2%3,840 in 2025, from 3,886
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.
Jeremiah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Jeremías in Spanish — same name
- Jeremias in Portuguese — same name
- Jérémie in French — same name
- Geremia in Italian — same name
- Jeremias in German — same name
- Yirmeyahu in Hebrew — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Jeremiahs among us
people named Jeremiah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 445 born in 2025 was named Jeremiah
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 Russell test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jeremiah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Russell climbed just as high around 1904, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Russell's path sketches the road Jeremiah is walking now.
Jeremiah is coming down from a big peak (#49 in 2011). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Jeremiah is headed
Jeremiah 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.
Jeremiah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jeremiah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A spelling most English speakers already know from scripture, so it rarely needs to be spelled out letter by letter.
- A documented line running from Hebrew through Greek and Latin into English, with no gaps to guess at.
- Established short forms at both ends of the name — Jerry, Jer, Miah — so a child has room to choose.
- Recognizable across Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian and German in forms close enough to be understood on sight.
- Familiar in every generation now living without ever having been the name in every classroom.
- It shares a doorway with Jeremy, and the two get swapped in speech and on paperwork for life. Jerry can point back to either one.
- English has the word "jeremiad", meaning a long, gloomy complaint, coined from the prophet's book. Few people connect the two, but the dictionary does.
- Four syllables is a lot on a form or a name tag, and most bearers end up using something shorter day to day.
- Jerimiah and Jeremia turn up as misspellings often enough to be worth expecting rather than dreading.
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What they receive
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Jeremiah
Masculine · #88 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jeremiahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 215,000 people named Jeremiah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Jeremiah in 2025?
- Jeremiah ranks #88 among US boy names in 2025, with 3,840 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Jeremiah?
- About 1 in every 445 US boys born in 2025 was named Jeremiah — 3,840 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jeremiah with classmates?
- Jeremiah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jeremiah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Jonathan#89 · Arthur#87 · Micah#90 · Gael#86 · Leonardo#91 · Luka#85 · Adriel#84 · Robert#92
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jeremiah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jeremiah and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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