Jake
Derived from the Hebrew name "Ya'akov," meaning "supplanter" or "he who follows."
Name Census estimates that about 115,262 living Americans carry the first name Jake. It sits at #422 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Jake today is around 26 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jake births was 2004 (4,485 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jake. 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 Jake with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Jake is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 217 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
115K
~ 1 in 2,974 Americans
Peak year
2004
4,485 babies that year
Average age
26
years old
2024 SSA rank
#422
Tracked since 1880
Census
Jake in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 132,608 people with the first name Jake, which placed it at #426 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
#426
National first-name rank
People counted
133K
132,608 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
43.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
80.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jake
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jake is White at 80.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.8%) and Two or More Races (3.7%). 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 Jake 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 Jake at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White80.7% · 106,978
- Hispanic or Latino9.8% · 12,939
- Two or more races3.7% · 4,964
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.1% · 4,072
- Black or African American2.1% · 2,776
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 879
Gender
Gender distribution for Jake
Out of the 128,856 babies given the name Jake since 1880, 99.8% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Jake as a male name
- Ranked #422 in 2024
- 743 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2004 (4,471 births)
Jake as a female name
- Ranked #17,303 in 2016
- 5 female births in 2016
- Peak: 1994 (15 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jake appears almost entirely male. Of the 132,610 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Jake: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jake from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 39,904 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jake 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 Jake during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jakes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Jake, while Vermont, Wyoming, District of Columbia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 2,395 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jake
The name Jake is a diminutive form of the name Jacob, which is derived from the Hebrew name Ya'aqov. The name Ya'aqov is believed to have originated from the Hebrew word "aqev," meaning "heel," or from the Hebrew verb "aqav," meaning "to follow or to be behind." This is a reference to the biblical story of Jacob being born holding onto his twin brother Esau's heel.
The name Jacob is first mentioned in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible, where it refers to one of the patriarchs of the Israelites and the progenitor of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. The name gained popularity among Jews and later among Christians due to its biblical significance.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the diminutive form "Jake" can be found in English literature from the 16th century. It was a common nickname for Jacob in England and other parts of Europe during this time period.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Jake. For example, Jake Arrieta (born 1986) is an American professional baseball pitcher who won the National League Cy Young Award in 2015. Jake Gyllenhaal (born 1980) is an American actor known for his roles in films such as "Donnie Darko," "Brokeback Mountain," and "Prisoners."
In the literary world, Jake Barnes is a famous character from Ernest Hemingway's novel "The Sun Also Rises," published in 1926. Jake Chambers is also a prominent character in Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" book series, which began in 1982.
Other notable individuals named Jake include Jake LaMotta (1922-2017), an American professional boxer and the subject of the film "Raging Bull," and Jake Tapper (born 1969), an American journalist and author who currently serves as the chief Washington correspondent for CNN.
The name Jake has remained a popular choice for boys over the years, particularly in English-speaking countries, due to its association with the biblical name Jacob and its friendly, informal tone.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Jake
People
Jake + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jake 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
Jake: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jake?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 115,262 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jake 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 2,974 US residents.
Is Jake a common name?
We classify Jake as "Common". It ranks above 99.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 128,856 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jake most popular?
The single biggest year for Jake was 2004, when 4,485 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jake is about 26 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jake in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 132,608 people with the name Jake, or 43.91 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #426 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 Jake 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 Jake?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jake appears almost entirely male. Of the 132,610 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Jake?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jake is White at 80.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.8%) and Two or More Races (3.7%). 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 Jake most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jake in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.7% (106,978 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 Jake in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jake a male name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Jake 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 Jake still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jake 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 Jake 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 Jake?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Jake, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.