Jerome
Feminine · “sacred name”
Jerome is given to boys far more often — 161,234 boys against 1,062 girls since 1880. See Jerome as a boy name
Jerome is a Greek name meaning sacred name, carried by the man who put the Bible into Latin and by the brother of an emperor who married a girl from Baltimore. The saint is usually painted with a lion at his feet, and the lion is not his — it belongs to a different saint entirely and arrived by a mix-up that nobody has ever bothered to undo.
How old is the name Jerome?
Jerome first appears in US birth records in 1912 — 113 years ago. The typical Jerome alive today was born around 1957, making them about 68 years old. About 700 people named Jerome are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jerome most popular?
Jerome peaked in 1933, reaching #1906 nationally. See the whole 1933 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From a Greek compound meaning sacred name to Jerome
The story of Jerome
The lion is a case of mistaken identity that has survived a thousand years of art history. The story of a monk who pulled a thorn from a lion's paw and was followed about by the grateful animal belongs to Saint Gerasimus, a Palestinian abbot whose name in Greek looks enough like Jerome's for a copyist to have confused them. By the Middle Ages the lion had transferred completely. Every painter who wanted to show the translator at his desk put the animal in the corner, and it is now impossible to identify him in a gallery without it — a piece of evidence attached to the wrong man and left there because it made a better picture.
Meaning
sacred name
The Greek compound is transparent: a word for holy and a word for a name. It was borne by the scholar who spent decades in Bethlehem producing the Latin translation that western Europe used for a thousand years, and who was by all accounts an extremely difficult man — his letters are full of quarrels. The name came into English through French, which wore the Greek down to two syllables and gave it the shape it has now.
How the name formed
- a Greek compound meaning sacred name
- the translator of the Latin Bible carries it
- a lion transfers to him from another saint
- French wears the name down to two syllables
- an American peak between the wars
Related forms: Jerome · Girolamo · Jeronimo · Hieronymos
Pronouncing Jerome
juh-ROHM
Two syllables with the stress at the back in English and French alike. The Italian and Spanish forms keep more of the Greek and are three or four syllables long.
Nicknames for Jerome
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
- 1912
- Most girls named
- 196028 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1906reached in 1933
- Change vs 1989
- −28.6%5 in 1993, from 7
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.
Jerome in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Jerome in French — same name
- Girolamo in Italian — same name
- Jeronimo in Spanish — same name
- Hieronymos in Greek — same name
Jeromes among us
people named Jerome are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Jerome sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is short in English while carrying a very long history.
- Jerry and Romy are available and belong to different generations entirely.
- The meaning is clear, dignified and easy to explain.
- It is closely associated with the middle of the last century in America and has not yet come back.
- Jerry is shared with Gerald, Gerard and Jeremy, so the short form gives nothing away.
- The saint's reputation for quarrelling is well documented and quite entertaining.
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What they receive
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Jerome
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Jeromes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Jerome are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Jerome in 2025?
- Jerome is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Jerome with classmates?
- Jerome will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More J names
The most-given names starting with J, all years combined.
Jennifer#586 · Jessica#665 · Janet#2778 · Julie#872 · Joyce#1071 · Joan#1085 · Julia#131 · Jean#2117
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jerome? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jerome and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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