Jai
A Sanskrit masculine name meaning "victory" or "one who has conquered".
Name Census estimates that about 6,255 living Americans carry the first name Jai. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 78.8% of registrations being male. The average person named Jai today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jai births was 2014 (234 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jai. 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 Jai with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
6.3K
~ 1 in 54,797 Americans
Peak year
2014
234 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,307
Tracked since 1957
Census
Jai in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 6,712 people with the first name Jai, which placed it at #3,206 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
#3,206
National first-name rank
People counted
6.7K
6,712 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
39.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jai
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jai is Asian/Pacific Islander at 39.1%. The next largest groups are Black (29.7%) and White (13.1%). 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 Jai 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 Jai at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander39.1% · 2,627
- Black or African American29.7% · 1,994
- White13.1% · 882
- Two or more races9.8% · 659
- Hispanic or Latino7.6% · 507
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 43
Gender
Gender distribution for Jai
Jai is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 6,392 total registrations, 5,037 (78.8%) were male and 1,355 (21.2%) were female.
Jai as a male name
- Ranked #1,307 in 2024
- 149 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2014 (201 births)
Jai as a female name
- Ranked #3,988 in 2024
- 37 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1998 (51 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Jai on both sides of the split. Of the 6,708 people counted with this name, 5,182 were male (77.3%) and 1,526 were female (22.7%).
Popularity
Jai: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jai 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 1,933 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Jai remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jai 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 Jai during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jais live
The SSA's state-level files cover 24 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Jai, while Tennessee, Missouri, Indiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 125 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jai
The name Jai has its origins in Sanskrit, an ancient Indo-Aryan language that has been widely used in South Asia for thousands of years. Jai is derived from the Sanskrit word "jaya," which means victory, triumph, or conquest. The name has been in use since ancient times and is deeply rooted in Hindu culture and mythology.
In Hinduism, the word "jai" is often used as an exclamation of praise or reverence, particularly in religious chants and mantras. The name has appeared in various ancient Hindu texts, including the Vedas, which are considered the oldest scriptures in the Sanskrit language. One of the most famous references to the name Jai can be found in the Bhagavad Gita, a sacred Hindu scripture that forms part of the Mahabharata epic.
The earliest recorded examples of the name Jai can be traced back to ancient India, where it was commonly used by Hindu rulers and warriors. One of the most notable historical figures with the name Jai was Jai Singh II (1688-1743), a Rajput king and astronomer who built several observatories across India and contributed significantly to the development of astronomy.
Other famous individuals with the name Jai include Jai Prakash Narayan (1902-1979), a prominent Indian independence activist and political leader who played a crucial role in the Quit India Movement against British colonial rule. Another noteworthy figure was Jai Narain Vyas (1856-1923), a renowned Indian writer and poet who contributed significantly to the Hindi literary tradition.
In the realm of sports, Jai Pal Singh (1935-2021) was an Indian field hockey player who won a gold medal at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Additionally, Jai Bhagwan (1933-2004) was a celebrated Indian boxer who won a gold medal at the 1966 Asian Games and represented India at the 1960 and 1964 Olympic Games.
The name Jai has continued to be popular in various parts of South Asia, particularly in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, where it is often given to boys in the hope of bestowing them with victory and success in life.
People
Jai + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jai 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
Jai: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jai?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 6,255 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jai 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 54,797 US residents.
Is Jai a common name?
We classify Jai as "Rare". It ranks above 97% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 6,392 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jai most popular?
The single biggest year for Jai was 2014, when 234 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jai is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jai in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 6,712 people with the name Jai, or 2.22 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,206 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 Jai 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 Jai?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Jai on both sides of the split. Of the 6,708 people counted with this name, 5,182 were male (77.3%) and 1,526 were female (22.7%). 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 Jai?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jai is Asian/Pacific Islander at 39.1%. The next largest groups are Black (29.7%) and White (13.1%). 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 Jai most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Jai in the 2020 Census, accounting for 39.1% (2,627 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 Jai in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jai a male name?
Yes, 78.8% of people registered as Jai 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 Jai still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jai 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 Jai 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 common is the name Jai?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.