Jotham
Masculine · “The Lord is perfect”
Jotham has two bearers in the Hebrew Bible and one of them tells the first fable in Western literature: Gideon's youngest son stands on a mountain and tells a story about trees choosing a king, which is a parable about his own murderous brother.
How old is the name Jotham?
Jotham first appears in US birth records in 1969 — 56 years ago. The typical Jotham alive today was born around 2011, making them about 14 years old. About 700 people named Jotham are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jotham most popular?
Jotham peaked in 1982, reaching #2972 nationally. Today it ranks #5608, 2,636 places below that high. See the whole 1982 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yôṯām to Jotham
The story of Jotham
Jotham, Gideon's youngest son, escapes when his brother Abimelech kills their seventy brothers; he stands on Mount Gerizim and tells the parable of the trees who ask the olive, the fig and the vine to be their king and are refused, and finally take the bramble — which is generally read as the oldest fable recorded in the Hebrew tradition. A second Jotham was a king of Judah. English Puritans took the name up along with the rest of the obscure biblical stock, and its small American record runs through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries with a peak in 1982.
Meaning
The Lord is perfect; Yahweh is upright
From Hebrew Yôṯām, from the divine name Yah and tām, complete, perfect or upright — the same word behind Tamar's root and the description of Job as tām. The reading is settled and appears in every source.
How the name formed
- Yôṯām
- Jotham
Related forms: יוֹתָם · Jotam
Pronouncing Jotham
JOH-thum
Two syllables, stress on the first. Hebrew puts the weight on the second, yo-TAHM, with a y at the front.
Nicknames for Jotham
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
- 1969
- Most boys named
- 201336 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2972reached in 1982
- Change vs 2024
- −46.7%16 in 2025, from 30
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.
Jotham in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- יוֹתָם in Hebrew — related form
- Jotam in Spanish — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California.
Jothams among us
people named Jotham are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 106,755 born in 2025 was named Jotham
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 Avrom test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jotham's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Avrom climbed just as high around 1934, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Avrom's path sketches the road Jotham is walking now.
Jotham 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
Jotham beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jotham in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled and unusually good.
- It is genuinely biblical and almost nobody else has it.
- Joe is available as a completely ordinary English form.
- It is unfamiliar to most Americans and will be spelled out.
- Jotham, Jotam and Yotam are three spellings of one name.
- The story attached to it is a massacre and a fable about it.
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What they receive
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Jotham
Masculine · #5608 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jothams 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 Jotham are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Jotham in 2025?
- Jotham ranks #5608 among US boy names in 2025, with 16 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jotham?
- About 1 in every 106,755 US boys born in 2025 was named Jotham — 16 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jotham with classmates?
- Jotham will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jotham
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rolland#5608 · Llewellyn#5608 · Arlie#5608 · Gerrit#5608 · Vinson#5608 · Georgie#5608 · Wally#5608 · Webb#5608
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jotham? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jotham and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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