Jourdan
Masculine · “one who descends”
Jourdan is given to both — 1,869 boys and 2,324 girls since 1880. See Jourdan as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Jourdan is Jordan written in French. The ou is not decoration: it is the ordinary French way of spelling that vowel, and Jourdain has been the standing French form of the name for centuries. What looks like an American respelling is actually the older orthography arriving by a different door.
How old is the name Jourdan?
Jourdan first appears in US birth records in 1973 — 52 years ago. The typical Jourdan alive today was born around 1998, making them about 27 years old. About 1,800 people named Jourdan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jourdan most popular?
Jourdan peaked in 1990, reaching #1149 nationally. Today it ranks #9714, 8,565 places below that high. See the whole 1990 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Jordanus to Jourdan
The story of Jourdan
The most consequential man to carry the name carried it as a surname. Jean-Baptiste Jourdan was a soldier who had enlisted as a boy, left the army, sold cloth for a living, and came back to command French armies in the revolutionary wars; he won at Fleurus in 1794 and was made a Marshal of the Empire. His lasting mark is not a battle, though. In 1798 he carried a law through the legislature that made military service a general obligation of every young Frenchman rather than a matter of recruitment and bounty, and it has been called the Jourdan law ever since. Modern conscription in Europe effectively begins with it, which is a considerable amount of history for a spelling most people take to be a flourish.
Meaning
one who descends; from the river Jordan
Hebrew Yarden, from a root meaning to go down, describing the river's fall rather than any person. Medieval Europe took it up as a baptismal name, and the French spelling reflects French habits rather than any change of sense.
How the name formed
- Jordanus
- Jourdain
- Jourdan
Related forms: Jourdain · Yarden · Giordano · Jordán
Pronouncing Jourdan
JOR-dan
In English it is said exactly like Jordan; the ou makes no audible difference. French says roughly zhoor-DAHN, with the stress at the back and a nasal ending English does not have.
Nicknames for Jourdan
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
- 1973
- Most boys named
- 199089 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1149reached in 1990
- Change vs 2024
- −50.0%7 in 2025, from 14
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.
Jourdan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Jourdain in French — same name
- Yarden in Hebrew — same name
- Giordano in Italian — same name
- Jordán in Spanish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas.
Jourdans among us
people named Jourdan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 244,011 born in 2025 was named Jourdan
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 Rabon test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jourdan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Rabon climbed just as high around 1938, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Rabon's path sketches the road Jourdan is walking now.
Jourdan 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
Jourdan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jourdan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is a genuine French form rather than an invented respelling.
- The sound is completely familiar, so it is never mispronounced.
- It looks distinctive on paper while asking nothing extra of the ear.
- It will be corrected to Jordan constantly, in writing and on forms.
- The record holds girls as well, and the girl is the smaller side of the name.
- The French spelling promises a French pronunciation that English speakers will not deliver.
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What they receive
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Jourdan
Masculine · #9714 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jourdans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,800 people named Jourdan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Jourdan in 2025?
- Jourdan ranks #9714 among US boy names in 2025, with 7 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jourdan?
- About 1 in every 244,011 US boys born in 2025 was named Jourdan — 7 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jourdan with classmates?
- Jourdan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jourdan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Vern#9714 · Abrahm#9714 · Sid#9714 · Hartwell#9714 · Kwan#9714 · Adrean#9714 · Chancey#9714 · Bob#9714
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jourdan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jourdan and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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