Jaccob
A masculine given name derived from the biblical Hebrew name Ya'aqov.
Name Census estimates that about 617 living Americans carry the first name Jaccob. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Jaccob today is around 25 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jaccob births was 1994 (35 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jaccob. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Jaccob with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
617
~ 1 in 555,518 Americans
Peak year
1994
35 babies that year
Average age
25
years old
2020 SSA rank
#12,837
Tracked since 1981
Census
Jaccob in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 556 people with the first name Jaccob, which placed it at #19,177 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
#19,177
National first-name rank
People counted
556
556 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
63.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jaccob
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jaccob is White at 63.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (23.6%) and Two or More Races (6.5%). 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 Jaccob 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 Jaccob at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White63.3% · 352
- Hispanic or Latino23.6% · 131
- Two or more races6.5% · 36
- Black or African American4.7% · 26
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 6
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 5
Popularity
Jaccob: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jaccob from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 260 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jaccob 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 Jaccob during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jaccobs live
Origin
Meaning and history of Jaccob
The name Jaccob has its origins in the Hebrew language and culture, stemming from the biblical name Jacob. The earliest known reference to the name can be traced back to the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible, where Jacob is one of the patriarchs and a key figure in the stories of the Israelites.
The name Jacob is derived from the Hebrew word "ya'aqov," which means "supplanter" or "one who follows." According to the biblical narrative, Jacob was given this name because he was born holding onto his twin brother Esau's heel, as if trying to supplant him as the firstborn.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Jaccob was Jaccob ben Reuben, a renowned Jewish scholar who lived in the 12th century CE. He was a prominent Talmudic scholar and is known for his contributions to the study of Jewish law and ethics.
Another notable figure was Jaccob Judah Arye, also known as Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel, a 16th century Jewish philosopher, and scholar from Prague. He is best known for his work on the Golem, a legendary creature from Jewish folklore.
In the 17th century, Jaccob van Ruisdael, a Dutch painter, was renowned for his landscape paintings depicting the Dutch countryside and seascapes. He is considered one of the most significant landscape painters of the Dutch Golden Age.
The name Jaccob also appears in the history of science, with Jaccob Bernoulli, a Swiss mathematician and physicist from the late 17th and early 18th centuries. He made significant contributions to the fields of probability theory, calculus, and mechanics.
In more recent times, Jaccob Zuma, the former President of South Africa from 2009 to 2018, is a notable figure who bears the name Jaccob. Despite the controversy surrounding his presidency, he is a significant political figure in modern South African history.
People
Jaccob + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jaccob 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
Jaccob: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jaccob?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 617 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jaccob 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 555,518 US residents.
Is Jaccob a common name?
We classify Jaccob as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 629 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jaccob most popular?
The single biggest year for Jaccob was 1994, when 35 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jaccob is about 25 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jaccob in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 556 people with the name Jaccob, or 0.18 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #19,177 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 Jaccob 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 Jaccob?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jaccob appears almost entirely male. Of the 561 people counted with this name, 100.0% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Jaccob?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jaccob is White at 63.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (23.6%) and Two or More Races (6.5%). 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 Jaccob most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jaccob in the 2020 Census, accounting for 63.3% (352 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 Jaccob in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jaccob a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Jaccob 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 Jaccob still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jaccob 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 Jaccob 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 people have the name Jaccob?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.