How Many People Are Named Jacob?
people named Jacob are alive in the United States today (estimate)
About 1 in 367 people in the US has this name
Based on 990,532 babies named Jacob in Social Security records from 1880 to 2025, and the share of each birth year still alive in 2025.
Popularity Rank
⭐⭐ Common
Peak Year
36,091 births
Trend
Declining (last 10 years)
📖 Name Origin & Meaning
Meaning:
From the Latin Iacobus, which was from the Greek Ιακωβος (Iakobos), which was from the Hebrew name יַעֲקֹב (Ya'aqov). In the Old Testament Jacob (later called Israel) is the son of Isaac and Rebecca and the father of the twelve founders of the twelve tribes of Israel. He was born holding his twin brother Esau's heel, and his name is explained as meaning "holder of the heel" or "supplanter", because he twice deprived his brother of his rights as the firstborn son (see Genesis 27:36). Other theories claim that it is in fact derived from a hypothetical name like יַעֲקֹבְאֵל (Ya'aqov'el) meaning "may God protect".
Source of the meaning, origin, pronunciation and related names: Behind the Name.
Same Sound, Other Spellings
These names are pronounced like Jacob in English. Counting Jacob and these spellings together, about 933,448 people alive in the US have the name.
⚧ Gender Distribution
Almost all of the babies given the name Jacob (99.8%) were boys.
👥 Age Distribution
The average person named Jacob alive today is about 25 years old, and 66% are under 30. Half of them were between 17 and 32 in 2025.
📈 Popularity Over Time
Jacob first appears in the records in 1880 and was given most often in 1998, to 36,091 babies. In 2025, 6,152 babies got the name. Over the last ten years, the number each year has been falling.
Babies given the name each year, 1880 to 2025
🏆 Rank History
Jacob was the #1 boys' name in the US in 1999 to 2012. It was in the top 10 for 25 years, 1993 to 2017. In 2025 it ranked #43.
| Boys | |
|---|---|
| Rank in 2025 | #43 |
| Best rank | #1 (1999 to 2012) |
| Years at #1 | 14 |
| Years in the top 10 | 25 |
| Years in the top 100 | 76 (1880 to 2025) |
| Rank in its biggest decade | #5 in the 1990s |
📍 State-Wise Distribution
People named Jacob alive today, by the state where they were born (estimate; state records start in 1910).
More people named Jacob were born in California than in any other state: about 107,887 of those alive today. Compared with the national rate in the same years, Jacob was given 1.5 times as often in North Dakota, 1.5 times in Wyoming and 1.4 times in Iowa.
Look up another name
⊙ We don't save the names you search.