Jacquelyn
A feminine name of French origin meaning "supplanter" or "one who follows".
Name Census estimates that about 62,095 living Americans carry the first name Jacquelyn. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Jacquelyn today is around 50 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jacquelyn births was 1951 (1,905 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jacquelyn. 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 Jacquelyn with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Jacquelyn is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 110 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1950s, recent registration numbers for Jacquelyn have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
62K
~ 1 in 5,520 Americans
Peak year
1951
1,905 babies that year
Average age
50
years old
1990 SSA rank
#2,285
Tracked since 1907
Census
Jacquelyn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 60,912 people with the first name Jacquelyn, which placed it at #800 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
#800
National first-name rank
People counted
61K
60,912 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
20.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
68.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jacquelyn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jacquelyn is White at 68.9%. The next largest groups are Black (16.3%) and Hispanic (9.5%). 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 Jacquelyn 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 Jacquelyn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White68.9% · 41,968
- Black or African American16.3% · 9,947
- Hispanic or Latino9.5% · 5,795
- Two or more races3.1% · 1,903
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.6% · 1,003
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 296
Gender
Gender distribution for Jacquelyn
Out of the 85,226 babies given the name Jacquelyn since 1880, 99.9% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Jacquelyn as a male name
- Ranked #6,067 in 1990
- 8 male births in 1990
- Peak: 1982 (10 births)
Jacquelyn as a female name
- Ranked #2,285 in 2024
- 81 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1951 (1,905 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jacquelyn appears almost entirely female. Of the 60,916 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Jacquelyn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jacquelyn from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 14,832 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jacquelyn 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 Jacquelyn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jacquelyns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Jacquelyn, while Wyoming, Alaska, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,589 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jacquelyn
The name Jacquelyn is a feminine form of the French name Jacques, which derived from the late Latin name Jacobus, meaning "supplanter" or "one who follows". Jacobus itself came from the Hebrew name Ya'aqov, which was the name of one of the patriarchs in the Bible.
The name Jacques became popular in France during the Middle Ages and was later anglicized into various spellings, including Jacqueline and Jacquelyn. The earliest recorded use of the name Jacquelyn dates back to the late 16th century.
One of the earliest notable figures with the name Jacquelyn was Jacqueline of Bavaria (1401-1436), the Countess of Holland, Zeeland, and Hainaut. She was a prominent figure in the Hundred Years' War and played a significant role in the political affairs of the Low Countries during her lifetime.
Another historical figure with the name Jacquelyn was Jacqueline du Pré (1945-1987), a renowned English cellist. She was widely celebrated for her virtuosic performances and is considered one of the greatest cellists of the 20th century.
Jacquelyn Kennedy Onassis (1929-1994), the wife of former U.S. President John F. Kennedy, was a prominent figure in American history. She was known for her fashion sense, cultural influence, and her role as First Lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963.
Jacquelyn Mitchard (born 1953) is an American novelist and author, best known for her novel "The Deep End of the Ocean," which was an Oprah's Book Club selection and later adapted into a feature film.
Jacquelyn Susann (1918-1974) was an American author who achieved fame with her bestselling novel "Valley of the Dolls," which depicted the lives of fictional Hollywood stars and their struggles with substance abuse and personal turmoil.
Overall, the name Jacquelyn has a rich history, with roots in both French and Hebrew cultures, and has been borne by notable figures across various fields, including politics, arts, and literature.
People
Jacquelyn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jacquelyn 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
Jacquelyn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jacquelyn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 62,095 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jacquelyn 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 5,520 US residents.
Is Jacquelyn a common name?
We classify Jacquelyn as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 85,226 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jacquelyn most popular?
The single biggest year for Jacquelyn was 1951, when 1,905 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jacquelyn is about 50 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jacquelyn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 60,912 people with the name Jacquelyn, or 20.17 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #800 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 Jacquelyn 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 Jacquelyn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jacquelyn appears almost entirely female. Of the 60,916 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Jacquelyn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jacquelyn is White at 68.9%. The next largest groups are Black (16.3%) and Hispanic (9.5%). 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 Jacquelyn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jacquelyn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.9% (41,968 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 Jacquelyn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jacquelyn a female name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Jacquelyn in the SSA data are female. 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 Jacquelyn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jacquelyn 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 Jacquelyn 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 Jacquelyn?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.