Jimi
Feminine · “Supplanter”
Jimi is given to both — 667 girls and 1,241 boys since 1880. See Jimi as a boy nameSee other names given to both
One man respelled this name and the spelling followed him. He had been Jimmy on posters and record labels for years; when the band that made him famous was put together in London, his manager suggested dropping the y for an i, and within a couple of years the four letters were doing a job no four letters had done before.
How old is the name Jimi?
Jimi first appears in US birth records in 1944 — 81 years ago. The typical Jimi alive today was born around 1976, making them about 49 years old. About 600 people named Jimi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jimi most popular?
Jimi peaked in 1958, reaching #2755 nationally. See the whole 1958 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yaakov to Jimi
The story of Jimi
A bare i at the end of a man's name was almost unknown in English before the nineteen-sixties. Women's names had been using it for decades, in Toni and Terri and Jodi, where it read as modern and slightly informal, and men's names had not followed. This one changed that: after it, the device was available for men in a way it had not been, and the record shows a handful of others adopting it in the following decades. The name itself was never rare, and its bearer's own first name was originally something else entirely, changed by his father when he was four. Very few names can be dated to a specific suggestion in a specific room, and this spelling can.
Meaningscholars disagree
Supplanter, by tradition
James is the same name as Jacob, arriving through Latin and Old French with the consonant softened, and the traditional reading of the Hebrew as supplanter comes from a pun inside the text rather than from the word itself. Scholars generally treat the derivation as open. The spelling here changes nothing about any of that; it changes only the look.
How the name formed
- Yaakov
- James
- Jimmy
- Jimi
Pronouncing Jimi
JIM-ee
Two syllables with the stress at the front, said exactly as Jimmy. The single m would in principle leave the first vowel long, but nobody applies the rule here; the name is known by ear before it is met on paper.
Nicknames for Jimi
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
- 1944
- Most girls named
- 197020 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2755reached in 1958
- Change vs 2021
- 0.0%5 in 2024, from 5
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.
Jimis among us
people named Jimi 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
Jimi 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
- The spoken name is completely established and needs no explaining anywhere.
- Jim is a short, plain, adult everyday form available from the start.
- The spelling is distinctive without being difficult to read or to write.
- The association with one musician is total and will not fade for a long time.
- Jimmy is the standard spelling and will be written by anybody taking dictation.
- The record carries this spelling for girls in small numbers as well.
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What they receive
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Jimi
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Jimis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Jimi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Jimi in 2025?
- Jimi is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Jimi with classmates?
- Jimi 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 Jimi? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jimi and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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