How Many People Are Named James?
people named James are alive in the United States today (estimate)
About 1 in 116 people in the US has this name
Based on 5,274,520 babies named James in Social Security records from 1880 to 2025, and the share of each birth year still alive in 2025.
Popularity Rank
βββ Very Common
Peak Year
95,024 births
Trend
Declining (last 10 years)
π Name Origin & Meaning
Meaning:
English form of the Late Latin name Iacomus which was derived from ΞΞ±ΞΊΟΞ²ΞΏΟ (Iakobos), the New Testament Greek form of the Hebrew name Ya'aqov (see JACOB). This was the name of two apostles in the New Testament. The first was Saint James the Greater, the apostle John's brother, who was beheaded under Herod Agrippa in the Book of Acts. The second was James the Lesser, son of Alphaeus. Another James (known as James the Just) is also mentioned in the Bible as being the brother of Jesus.
Source of the meaning, origin, pronunciation and related names: Behind the Name.
Same Sound, Other Spellings
These names are pronounced like James in English. Counting James and these spellings together, about 2,935,643 people alive in the US have the name.
β§ Gender Distribution
Almost all of the babies given the name James (99.5%) were boys.
π₯ Age Distribution
The average person named James alive today is about 54 years old, and 47% are 60 or older. Half of them were between 39 and 70 in 2025.
π Popularity Over Time
James first appears in the records in 1880 and was given most often in 1947, to 95,024 babies. In 2025, 12,004 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
π Rank History
James was the #1 boys' name in the US in 1940 to 1952. It was in the top 10 in 125 years between 1880 and 2025. In 2025 it ranked #6.
| Boys | |
|---|---|
| Rank in 2025 | #6 |
| Best rank | #1 (1940 to 1952) |
| Years at #1 | 13 |
| Years in the top 10 | 125 |
| Years in the top 100 | 146 (1880 to 2025) |
| Rank in its biggest decade | #1 in the 1950s |
π State-Wise Distribution
People named James alive today, by the state where they were born (estimate; state records start in 1910).
More people named James were born in California than in any other state: about 210,704 of those alive today. Compared with the national rate in the same years, James was given 1.6 times as often in South Carolina, 1.6 times in Tennessee and 1.5 times in Alabama.
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