Jubal
Masculine · “Hebrew yobel”
Genesis 4 names the first of everything, and Jubal is the first musician: the father of all who play the lyre and the pipe. He gets one verse. His brother Jabal invents tents and cattle-keeping in the verse before, and his half-brother Tubal-cain invents metalwork in the verse after. Three sentences cover the invention of civilization.
How old is the name Jubal?
Jubal first appears in US birth records in 1956 — 69 years ago. The typical Jubal alive today was born around 1989, making them about 36 years old. About 800 people named Jubal are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jubal most popular?
Jubal peaked in 1968, reaching #1962 nationally. Today it ranks #8243, 6,281 places below that high. See the whole 1968 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From yobel to Jubal
The story of Jubal
The Genesis genealogy of Cain is a compressed account of technology. Within a few verses it assigns the origin of pastoral nomadism, of music and of bronze and iron working to three brothers, and it names the first city after Cain's son. The passage is doing what many ancient texts do, attaching each craft to an ancestor so that the crafts have a lineage, and it stands in a long Near Eastern tradition of culture-hero lists. What is unusual is the compression. Jubal has no story: he is a name, a father, and an invention. Names of that kind, present in the text but given nothing to do, have always been attractive to parents, and Jubal has been used in English since the seventeenth century. In the United States it also carries a Confederate general, Jubal Early, which is a substantial part of its nineteenth-century Southern use. It peaks in 1968.
Meaningscholars disagree
Hebrew yobel, a ram's horn or trumpet
Jubal is usually connected with Hebrew yobel, a ram's horn used as a trumpet, which is fitting for the first musician and may be why the name was given in the text. The same word yobel gives jubilee, the fiftieth year proclaimed by the sounding of the horn in Leviticus 25. English jubilant and jubilation look related but are not: they come from Latin iubilare, to shout, an entirely separate word that happens to resemble the Hebrew one.
How the name formed
- yobel
- Jubal
Related forms: Yuval · Jubal
Pronouncing Jubal
JOO-bul
Two syllables, stress on the first. The modern Hebrew form is Yuval, yoo-VAHL, with the stress at the end and a v rather than a b, since Hebrew bet without a dot is pronounced v. The two are the same name.
Nicknames for Jubal
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
- 1956
- Most boys named
- 197722 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1962reached in 1968
- Change vs 2024
- −35.7%9 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.
Jubal in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Yuval in Hebrew — transliteration
- Jubal in Spanish — same name
Jubals among us
people named Jubal are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 189,786 born in 2025 was named Jubal
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 Renald test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jubal's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Renald climbed just as high around 1924, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Renald's path sketches the road Jubal is walking now.
Jubal 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
Jubal beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jubal in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It has a documented biblical entry and a memorable one.
- The link to music is genuine and comes from the text itself.
- Two syllables, easy to say and to spell.
- The Confederate general is a strong association in the American South.
- The connection to jubilant is a false friend.
- It is rare enough that people will ask about it.
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What they receive
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Jubal
Masculine · #8243 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jubals are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Jubal are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Jubal in 2025?
- Jubal ranks #8243 among US boy names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jubal?
- About 1 in every 189,786 US boys born in 2025 was named Jubal — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jubal with classmates?
- Jubal will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jubal
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Danial#8243 · Ogden#8243 · Aaren#8243 · Trinity#8243 · Kourtney#8243 · Maury#8243 · Lindon#8243 · Elbert#8243
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jubal? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jubal and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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