Jess
Masculine
Jess is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 25,063 boys against 487 girls since 1880.
Jess is the short form of Jesse, and Jesse is the father of David — which makes it one of the few names in the Bible remembered mainly for whose parent its bearer was.
How old is the name Jess?
Jess was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Jess alive today was born around 1948, making them about 77 years old. About 12,500 people named Jess are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jess most popular?
Jess peaked in 1887, reaching #109 nationally. Today it ranks #5208, 5,099 places below that high. See the whole 1887 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yishai to Jess
The story of Jess
Jesse appears in the Book of Samuel as a Bethlehem farmer whose youngest son is anointed king, and the phrase 'the root of Jesse' made him a fixture of Christian art — the Jesse Tree, showing the descent of Christ, is carved and painted in cathedrals across Europe. English use came with the Reformation, and it was strong in nineteenth-century America. Jess as a legal name in its own right stood in the top hundred and ten for boys around 1887.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established
From the Hebrew Yishai. The meaning is not settled: 'gift' and 'wealthy' have both been proposed, along with a reading that treats it as a shortened form of a longer theophoric name. None is established, and the text gives no explanation of its own.
How the name formed
- Yishai
- Iessai
- Jesse
- Jess
Related forms: Yishai · Isaí · Iesse
Pronouncing Jess
JESS
One syllable. Identical for both sexes, and identical to the short form of Jessica.
Nicknames for Jess
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 1916485 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #109reached in 1887
- Change vs 2022
- +5.9%18 in 2025, from 17
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.
Jess in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Yishai in Hebrew — related form
- Isaí in Spanish — related form
- Iesse in Italian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas.
Jesss among us
people named Jess are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 94,893 born in 2025 was named Jess
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Jess 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
Jess beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jess in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Jesse stands behind it with three thousand years of documented use.
- One syllable, plain and clear in every English accent.
- It works for either sex, which some families want.
- It is also the standard short form of Jessica, so the sound reads as feminine to many people.
- The meaning of the parent name is genuinely unrecovered.
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What they receive
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Jess
Masculine · #5208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jesss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 12,500 people named Jess are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Jess in 2025?
- Jess ranks #5208 among US boy names in 2025, with 18 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jess?
- About 1 in every 94,893 US boys born in 2025 was named Jess — 18 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jess with classmates?
- Jess will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jess
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rodger#5208 · Eusebio#5208 · Boy#5208 · Randal#5208 · Gable#5208 · Jessy#5208 · Kelby#5208 · Jens#5208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jess? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jess and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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