Yaqub
Masculine · “heel-holder”
Yaqub is Jacob in Arabic, and the name is a piece of wordplay in the story it comes from. Genesis has him born gripping his twin's heel, and the text ties the name to the heel — which may be the etymology or may be the storyteller.
How old is the name Yaqub?
Yaqub first appears in US birth records in 2000 — 25 years ago. The typical Yaqub is a kid of about 8 — this name's wave is very recent. About 600 people named Yaqub are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Yaqub most popular?
Yaqub peaked in 2019, reaching #2556 nationally. Today it ranks #3089, 533 places below that high. See the whole 2019 chart.
Where it comes from
From Ya'aqov to Yaqub
The story of Yaqub
Jacob is the patriarch who wrestles a stranger at a ford and is renamed Israel for it, and he is a prophet in Islam as well, which makes Yaqub one of the names shared by all three Abrahamic traditions. The Arabic form spread wherever Islam did — into Turkish as Yakup, Urdu, Malay, Hausa and Somali — and it reaches United States records with families from all of them. English gets Jacob and James from the same Hebrew name by two different routes.
Meaningscholars disagree
heel-holder; supplanter
Hebrew Ya'aqov is connected in Genesis to aqev, 'heel', because the child is born holding his brother's, and later the same root is used to accuse him of supplanting. Scholars generally read that as narrative wordplay rather than derivation, and take the name as a shortened theophoric — something like 'may God protect'. Both readings are old and neither has carried.
How the name formed
- Ya'aqov
- Yaqub
Related forms: Jacob · Yaakov · Yakup · Jacobo
Pronouncing Yaqub
yah-KOOB
Two syllables with the stress on the second and a long oo. The q is a deep consonant made at the back of the throat, further back than an English k; an ordinary k is understood everywhere.
Nicknames for Yaqub
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
- 2000
- Most boys named
- 201951 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2556reached in 2019
- Change vs 2024
- −7.1%39 in 2025, from 42
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.
Yaqub in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Jacob in English — same name
- Yaakov in Hebrew — same name
- Yakup in Turkish — same name
- Jacobo in Spanish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Minnesota, New York, California.
Yaqubs among us
people named Yaqub are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 43,797 born in 2025 was named Yaqub
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 Joseantonio test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Yaqub's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Joseantonio climbed just as high around 1994, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Joseantonio's path sketches the road Yaqub is walking now.
Yaqub 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
Where Yaqub is headed
Yaqub should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Yaqub beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Yaqub in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Recognized across Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions alike.
- Jacob stands beside it as the familiar English form, which makes it easy to place.
- Five letters, no silent ones, and readable at first sight in English.
- The q will be read as a typing error by people who do not know Arabic transliteration.
- Yaqub, Yakub, Yaqoob and Yakup are the same name in four standard spellings.
- Its meaning is genuinely unsettled, and the traditional reading is a biblical pun.
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Yaqub
Masculine · #3089 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Yaqubs 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 Yaqub are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Yaqub in 2025?
- Yaqub ranks #3089 among US boy names in 2025, with 39 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Yaqub?
- About 1 in every 43,797 US boys born in 2025 was named Yaqub — 39 in all.
- Will my child share the name Yaqub with classmates?
- Yaqub will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Yaqub
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Aadi#3089 · Wynston#3089 · Braelyn#3089 · Leopoldo#3089 · Zaedyn#3089 · Saxon#3089 · Rehan#3089 · Cree#3089
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Yaqub? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Yaqub and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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