Jr
Masculine · “the younger”
JR is the suffix turned into a name — a genuine American habit of registering the abbreviation rather than the name it abbreviates.
How old is the name Jr?
Jr first appears in US birth records in 1915 — 110 years ago. The typical Jr alive today was born around 1994, making them about 31 years old. About 1,300 people named Jr are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jr most popular?
Jr peaked in 1927, reaching #1322 nationally. Today it ranks #4249, 2,927 places below that high. See the whole 1927 chart.
Jr appears on this list:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Jr
Ours, offered as ours. Junior as a term of address is American and old: a boy named for his father is called Junior in the household and by everyone else, and the suffix does the work the name cannot. Registering JR as the legal name closes the loop — the abbreviation becomes the thing. It appears in American records from the 1920s onward, most strongly in the South, and it is a genuinely American piece of naming.
Meaning
the younger
From Latin iunior, younger, the comparative of iuvenis, young; English uses it after a son's name when it matches his father's. The same root gives junior, juvenile and June, named for Juno.
Pronouncing Jr
JAY-ar
Two syllables, second slightly stressed. Some families say JOO-nyer.
Nicknames for Jr
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
- 1915
- Most boys named
- 198943 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1322reached in 1927
- Change vs 2023
- +71.4%24 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.
Jr in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Iunior in Latin — related form
- Junior in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Washington.
Jrs among us
people named Jr are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 71,170 born in 2025 was named Jr
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 Jacobo test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jr's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jacobo climbed just as high around 1910, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jacobo's path sketches the road Jr is walking now.
Jr 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
Jr beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jr in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two letters — as short as a name can possibly be.
- A settled Latin meaning that everybody already knows.
- Genuine twentieth-century American use as a registered given name.
- It reads as a suffix, and forms will ask what it stands for.
- Systems that require more than two characters will reject it.
- It means the younger, which becomes odd as he ages.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Jr
Masculine · #4249 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jrs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,300 people named Jr are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Jr in 2025?
- Jr ranks #4249 among US boy names in 2025, with 24 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jr?
- About 1 in every 71,170 US boys born in 2025 was named Jr — 24 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jr with classmates?
- Jr will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jr
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Guadalupe#4249 · Denny#4249 · Hughes#4249 · Erling#4249 · Rodrick#4249 · Elric#4249 · Ron#4249 · Wright#4249
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jr? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jr and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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