Jamaine
A combination of James and Aimee meaning "beloved replacement."
Name Census estimates that about 1,293 living Americans carry the first name Jamaine. It is a predominantly male name (98.8% of registrations). The average person named Jamaine today is around 37 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jamaine births was 1978 (63 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jamaine. 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 Jamaine with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.3K
~ 1 in 265,085 Americans
Peak year
1978
63 babies that year
Average age
37
years old
2023 SSA rank
#7,620
Tracked since 1970
Census
Jamaine in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 919 people with the first name Jamaine, which placed it at #13,223 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
#13,223
National first-name rank
People counted
919
919 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
86.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jamaine
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jamaine is Black at 86.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.0%) and White (3.8%). 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 Jamaine 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 Jamaine at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American86.0% · 790
- Two or more races5.0% · 46
- White3.8% · 35
- Hispanic or Latino3.7% · 34
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 8
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 6
Gender
Gender distribution for Jamaine
Jamaine leans heavily male at 98.8% of total registrations, but 16 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Jamaine as a male name
- Ranked #11,404 in 2023
- 6 male births in 2023
- Peak: 1978 (63 births)
Jamaine as a female name
- Ranked #7,620 in 1972
- 6 female births in 1972
- Peak: 1972 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jamaine leans strongly male. 841 people counted with this name were male (91.3%), compared with 80 female bearers (8.7%).
Popularity
Jamaine: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jamaine from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 399 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jamaine 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 Jamaine during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jamaines live
The SSA's state-level files cover 8 states and territories. New York, Florida, New Jersey recorded the most babies named Jamaine, while Ohio, California, Virginia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 29 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jamaine
The name Jamaine is a variant of the French name Jamine, which is derived from the Arabic name Yasmin. The name Yasmin is believed to have originated in Persia, where it was used to refer to the jasmine flower. The jasmine flower has been cherished for its beauty and fragrance in many Middle Eastern and Asian cultures for centuries.
In Arabic, the name Yasmin is pronounced as "Yas-meen" and is derived from the Persian word "Yasaman," which means "gift from God." This name was likely introduced to Europe during the Middle Ages, when trade and cultural exchanges between the East and West were flourishing. The French version, Jamine, emerged as a spelling variation of the Arabic name.
The earliest recorded use of the name Jamaine is difficult to pinpoint, as it is a relatively modern variant of the more traditional Jamine. However, the name Jamine has been documented in historical records dating back to the 16th century in France and other parts of Europe.
One of the earliest notable individuals with the name Jamaine was Jamaine Clemens, a French artist and painter born in 1820. He was known for his depictions of rural life and landscapes in the Impressionist style. Another notable figure was Jamaine Dubois, a French writer and poet who lived from 1835 to 1901 and was part of the Parnassian literary movement.
In the 20th century, Jamaine gained some popularity as a given name, particularly in the United States. One of the most famous individuals with this name was Jamaine Stephens, an American civil rights activist and lawyer who played a crucial role in the desegregation of public schools in the 1950s and 1960s. He was born in 1921 and passed away in 2008.
Another notable figure was Jamaine Jones, an American jazz musician and saxophonist who was part of the bebop movement in the 1940s and 1950s. He was born in 1919 and passed away in 1986. Jamaine Roberts, an American actress and singer who appeared in various Broadway productions and television shows in the 1970s and 1980s, also carried this name.
While the name Jamaine is not as common as its more traditional counterparts like Jasmine or Yasmin, it has a rich cultural heritage and has been borne by notable individuals throughout history, particularly in the realms of art, literature, and civil rights.
People
Jamaine + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jamaine 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
Jamaine: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jamaine?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,293 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jamaine 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 265,085 US residents.
Is Jamaine a common name?
We classify Jamaine as "Rare". It ranks above 91.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,350 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jamaine most popular?
The single biggest year for Jamaine was 1978, when 63 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jamaine is about 37 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jamaine in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 919 people with the name Jamaine, or 0.30 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,223 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 Jamaine 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 Jamaine?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jamaine leans strongly male. 841 people counted with this name were male (91.3%), compared with 80 female bearers (8.7%). 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 Jamaine?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jamaine is Black at 86.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.0%) and White (3.8%). 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 Jamaine most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Jamaine in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.0% (790 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 Jamaine in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jamaine a male name?
Yes, 98.8% of people registered as Jamaine 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 Jamaine still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jamaine 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 Jamaine 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 Jamaine?
See how many people share the name Jamaine on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.