Jacobus
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "supplanter" or "one who grasps the heel".
Name Census estimates that about 134 living Americans carry the first name Jacobus. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Jacobus today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jacobus births was 1997 (8 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jacobus. 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
134
~ 1 in 2,557,868 Americans
Peak year
1997
8 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2024 SSA rank
#11,444
Tracked since 1979
Popularity
Jacobus: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jacobus from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 47 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Jacobus remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jacobus 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 Jacobus during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jacobus
The given name Jacobus has its origins in the Hebrew language, deriving from the name Ya'aqov, meaning "supplanter" or "one who follows". It is the Latin form of the name Jacob, which is found in the Old Testament of the Bible. The name gained widespread usage during the Roman era, as many early Christians adopted the Latin versions of biblical names.
Jacobus is closely related to the names Jacob, James, and their various linguistic derivations across different cultures and languages. In ancient times, the name was particularly popular among Jewish and early Christian communities, as it held significant religious and cultural significance.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Jacobus can be found in the New Testament, where it refers to James, the son of Zebedee and one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ. Another notable figure from the Bible bearing this name is James, the brother of Jesus, who is often referred to as James the Just.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Jacobus. One of the most prominent was Jacobus de Voragine (c. 1230-1298), an Italian chronicler and archbishop of Genoa, best known for his work Legenda Aurea, a collection of saints' lives that greatly influenced medieval hagiography.
Another notable bearer of the name was Jacobus Arminius (1560-1609), a Dutch theologian and pastor who founded the Remonstrant movement within Calvinism, which later became known as Arminianism. His teachings challenged the doctrine of predestination and emphasized free will.
In the field of mathematics, Jacobus Bernoulli (1654-1705) was a Swiss mathematician and scientist who made significant contributions to the development of calculus and probability theory. He is also known for the Bernoulli numbers and the Bernoulli form of the Euler-Maclaurin formula.
Another notable figure was Jacobus Houbraken (1698-1780), a Dutch engraver and writer who is best known for his biographical work "The Great Theatre of Dutch Painters and Draughtsmen" (De Groote Schouburgh der Nederlantsche Konstschilders en Schilderessen), which provided valuable information about Dutch artists from the 16th and 17th centuries.
Lastly, Jacobus Fridericus Fries (1773-1843) was a German philosopher and Protestant theologian who made significant contributions to the field of epistemology. He is known for his theory of "anthropological knowledge," which emphasized the subjective nature of human perception and experience.
People
Jacobus + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jacobus 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
Jacobus: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jacobus?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 134 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jacobus 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 2,557,868 US residents.
Is Jacobus a common name?
We classify Jacobus as "Very Rare". It ranks above 68.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 137 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jacobus most popular?
The single biggest year for Jacobus was 1997, when 8 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jacobus is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Jacobus a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Jacobus 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.
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.