Jacoby
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "supplanting" or "taking the place of another".
Name Census estimates that about 10,985 living Americans carry the first name Jacoby. It is a predominantly male name (98.9% of registrations). The average person named Jacoby today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jacoby births was 2008 (696 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jacoby. 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 Jacoby with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Jacoby is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 119 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
11K
~ 1 in 31,202 Americans
Peak year
2008
696 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,321
Tracked since 1959
Census
Jacoby in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 8,744 people with the first name Jacoby, which placed it at #2,686 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
#2,686
National first-name rank
People counted
8.7K
8,744 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
39.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jacoby
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jacoby is Black at 39.9%. The next largest groups are White (37.5%) and Hispanic (10.8%). 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 Jacoby 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 Jacoby at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American39.9% · 3,486
- White37.5% · 3,275
- Hispanic or Latino10.8% · 943
- Two or more races8.3% · 724
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.9% · 252
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 64
Gender
Gender distribution for Jacoby
Jacoby leans heavily male at 98.9% of total registrations, but 119 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Jacoby as a male name
- Ranked #1,321 in 2024
- 146 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2008 (691 births)
Jacoby as a female name
- Ranked #16,080 in 2020
- 5 female births in 2020
- Peak: 1992 (9 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jacoby leans strongly male. 8,582 people counted with this name were male (98.2%), compared with 154 female bearers (1.8%).
Popularity
Jacoby: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jacoby from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 4,188 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jacoby 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 Jacoby during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jacobys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 47 states and territories. Texas, Louisiana, Florida recorded the most babies named Jacoby, while North Dakota, Hawaii, West Virginia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 190 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jacoby
The name Jacoby is a variant of the Hebrew name Jacob, which is derived from the biblical patriarch Jacob, son of Isaac and Rebecca. Jacob was later referred to as Israel, and his twelve sons became the progenitors of the twelve tribes of Israel. The name Jacob means "supplanter" or "one who follows at the heel" in Hebrew.
The name Jacoby likely originated as a patronymic surname, indicating "son of Jacob." It later transitioned into use as a given name in its own right. The earliest recorded instances of the name Jacoby appeared in various European countries during the Middle Ages and Renaissance periods.
One notable historical figure named Jacoby was Jacoby I of Aragon, who reigned as the King of Aragon and Valencia from 1213 to 1276. He played a significant role in the Reconquista, the centuries-long campaign by Christian rulers to reclaim the Iberian Peninsula from Moorish rule.
Another prominent individual with the name Jacoby was Jacoby Luria, a renowned 16th-century Jewish mystic and scholar from Safed, Palestine. He was a leading figure in the development of Kabbalah, the esoteric Jewish mystical tradition.
In the realm of literature, Jacoby Grimm, born in 1785, was a German philologist and one of the famous Brothers Grimm. Along with his brother Wilhelm, he collected and published numerous folk tales and fairy tales that have become beloved classics.
Jacoby Ellsworth Jones, born in 1833, was an American businessman and politician who served as the 17th Governor of New Mexico Territory from 1897 to 1901. He played a significant role in the economic development of the region during his tenure.
Jacoby Schmid, born in 1892, was a German-American mathematician and astronomer known for his contributions to celestial mechanics and the study of comets. He worked at Yale University and the University of California, Berkeley.
Throughout history, the name Jacoby has been carried by individuals from diverse backgrounds, including royalty, religious leaders, scholars, politicians, and scientists. While its origins can be traced back to the biblical Jacob, the name has taken on various cultural influences and interpretations across different regions and eras.
People
Jacoby + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jacoby 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
Jacoby: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jacoby?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 10,985 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jacoby 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 31,202 US residents.
Is Jacoby a common name?
We classify Jacoby as "Uncommon". It ranks above 97.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 11,154 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jacoby most popular?
The single biggest year for Jacoby was 2008, when 696 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jacoby is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jacoby in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 8,744 people with the name Jacoby, or 2.90 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,686 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 Jacoby 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 Jacoby?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jacoby leans strongly male. 8,582 people counted with this name were male (98.2%), compared with 154 female bearers (1.8%). 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 Jacoby?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jacoby is Black at 39.9%. The next largest groups are White (37.5%) and Hispanic (10.8%). 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 Jacoby most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Jacoby in the 2020 Census, accounting for 39.9% (3,486 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 Jacoby in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jacoby a male name?
Yes, 98.9% of people registered as Jacoby 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 Jacoby still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jacoby 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 Jacoby 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 are named Jacoby?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.