Ja
A feminine variant of the Arabic name Zain, meaning "beauty" or "grace".
Name Census estimates that about 417 living Americans carry the first name Ja. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 68.7% of registrations being male. The average person named Ja today is around 32 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ja births was 2000 (29 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ja. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
417
~ 1 in 821,953 Americans
Peak year
2000
29 babies that year
Average age
32
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,323
Tracked since 1957
Census
Ja in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,871 people with the first name Ja, which placed it at #7,906 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#7,906
National first-name rank
People counted
1.9K
1,871 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
33.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ja
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ja is White at 33.9%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (33.0%) and Black (17.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Ja described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Ja at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White33.9% · 634
- Asian and Pacific Islander33.0% · 618
- Black or African American17.3% · 323
- Hispanic or Latino12.2% · 229
- Two or more races3.0% · 56
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 11
Gender
Gender distribution for Ja
Ja is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 435 total registrations, 299 (68.7%) were male and 136 (31.3%) were female.
Ja as a male name
- Ranked #9,323 in 2024
- 8 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1999 (20 births)
Ja as a female name
- Ranked #18,719 in 2007
- 5 female births in 2007
- Peak: 2000 (14 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ja on both sides of the split. Of the 1,870 people counted with this name, 1,007 were male (53.9%) and 863 were female (46.1%).
Popularity
Ja: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ja from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 125 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ja by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Ja during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Ja
The name Ja has its origins in the ancient Sanskrit language of India, dating back to the 2nd millennium BC. It is believed to be derived from the Sanskrit word "jaya," which means victory or triumph.
In Hindu mythology, Ja is often associated with the god Vishnu, one of the principal deities of the Hindu trinity. The name appears in various ancient Hindu scriptures, such as the Vedas and the Puranas, where it is used as a suffix or a prefix in the names of Hindu gods and goddesses.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Ja can be found in the Mahabharata, the famous Indian epic from the 8th century BC. The epic includes the name Jayadratha, which means "the one who controls victory."
Throughout history, the name Ja has been borne by several notable figures. One of the most famous was Jayaprakash Narayan (1902-1979), an Indian independence activist and political leader who played a crucial role in the Indian independence movement against British colonial rule.
Another prominent figure was Jayadeva (12th century), an Indian poet and Sanskrit scholar best known for his poetic composition Gitagovinda, which describes the love between Krishna and Radha.
In the realm of Islamic history, Ja'far al-Sadiq (702-765) was an influential Muslim scholar and the sixth Imam in Shia Islam. His name, which means "the truthful one," is derived from the Arabic word "sadiq."
Moving to ancient Egypt, the name Ja appears in the form of Jahi or Jah, which was a common name for Egyptian pharaohs and nobility. One example is Amenhotep III (1388-1351 BC), whose name means "Amun is satisfied."
In modern times, the name Ja has been used in various cultures and languages, often carrying similar meanings of victory, triumph, or strength. However, its historical roots can be traced back to the ancient Sanskrit language and Hindu traditions of India.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Ja
People
Ja + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ja as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with J
Other first names starting with J with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Ja: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ja?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 417 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ja going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 821,953 US residents.
Is Ja a common name?
We classify Ja as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 435 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ja most popular?
The single biggest year for Ja was 2000, when 29 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ja is about 32 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ja in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,871 people with the name Ja, or 0.62 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,906 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Ja in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Ja?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ja on both sides of the split. Of the 1,870 people counted with this name, 1,007 were male (53.9%) and 863 were female (46.1%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Ja?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ja is White at 33.9%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (33.0%) and Black (17.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Ja most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ja in the 2020 Census, accounting for 33.9% (634 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Ja in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ja a male name?
Yes, 68.7% of people registered as Ja in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Ja still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ja in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Ja can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many Americans are named Ja?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Ja, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.