Jakobe
German variation of the Hebrew name Jacob, meaning "supplanter" or "holder of the heel".
Name Census estimates that about 4,711 living Americans carry the first name Jakobe. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Jakobe today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jakobe births was 2020 (273 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jakobe. 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.
Key insights
- • Jakobe is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 14 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
4.7K
~ 1 in 72,756 Americans
Peak year
2020
273 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,301
Tracked since 1996
Census
Jakobe in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,860 people with the first name Jakobe, which placed it at #5,817 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
#5,817
National first-name rank
People counted
2.9K
2,860 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
65.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jakobe
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jakobe is Black at 65.9%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (13.0%) and White (11.4%). 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 Jakobe 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 Jakobe at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American65.9% · 1,884
- Two or more races13.0% · 373
- White11.4% · 326
- Hispanic or Latino7.3% · 210
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 42
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 25
Popularity
Jakobe: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jakobe from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 1,793 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Jakobe remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jakobe 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 Jakobe during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jakobes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 29 states and territories. Texas, Georgia, Alabama recorded the most babies named Jakobe, while Iowa, Colorado, Arizona recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 123 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jakobe
The given name Jakobe has its origins in the Germanic languages, with roots tracing back to the Middle Ages. The name is a variant of the Hebrew name Jacob, which means "supplanter" or "one who follows." It is derived from the Biblical figure Jacob, the son of Isaac and Rebecca, who is a significant figure in the Old Testament.
In the early centuries of the Christian era, the name Jacob gained popularity across Europe as a result of its Biblical association. Over time, various spellings and adaptations emerged in different regions, including Jakobe, which became particularly common in certain parts of Germany and the Netherlands.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Jakobe can be found in the Codex Traditionum Westfalicarum, a medieval document from the 9th century that chronicles land transactions and property transfers in the region of Westphalia, Germany. This document mentions several individuals bearing the name Jakobe, indicating its widespread use during that period.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Jakobe. One such individual was Jakobe van Artevelde (1290-1345), a Flemish statesman and popular leader who played a significant role in the conflict between the County of Flanders and the French monarchy during the Hundred Years' War.
Another prominent figure was Jakobe Reinier (1589-1676), a Dutch Golden Age painter known for his landscapes and seascapes. His works are housed in prestigious museums such as the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the Louvre in Paris.
In the realm of literature, Jakobe Grimmelshausen (1621-1676) was a German novelist and poet, best known for his picaresque novel "Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus," which depicts the hardships of the Thirty Years' War.
The name Jakobe also found its way into the world of music, with Jakobe Handl (1550-1591), a renowned Austrian composer and organist who was a contemporary of Giovanni Gabrieli and contributed significantly to the development of Renaissance music.
Lastly, Jakobe Böhme (1575-1624) was a German philosopher and Christian mystic whose writings, particularly "Aurora" and "De Signatura Rerum," influenced numerous thinkers and movements, including German Romanticism and Theosophy.
These examples illustrate the rich history and widespread use of the given name Jakobe across various fields and regions, from the Middle Ages to the early modern period, solidifying its place in the annals of Western civilization.
People
Jakobe + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jakobe 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
Jakobe: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jakobe?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,711 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jakobe 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 72,756 US residents.
Is Jakobe a common name?
We classify Jakobe as "Rare". It ranks above 96.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,757 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jakobe most popular?
The single biggest year for Jakobe was 2020, when 273 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jakobe is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jakobe in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,860 people with the name Jakobe, or 0.95 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,817 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 Jakobe 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 Jakobe?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jakobe appears almost entirely male. Of the 2,851 people counted with this name, 99.3% 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 Jakobe?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jakobe is Black at 65.9%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (13.0%) and White (11.4%). 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 Jakobe most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Jakobe in the 2020 Census, accounting for 65.9% (1,884 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 Jakobe in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jakobe a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Jakobe 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 Jakobe still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jakobe 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 Jakobe 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 Jakobe?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.