Jaquelyn
A feminine name of French origin meaning "supplanter" or "one who follows".
Name Census estimates that about 2,631 living Americans carry the first name Jaquelyn. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Jaquelyn today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jaquelyn births was 2000 (127 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jaquelyn. 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.
People living today
2.6K
~ 1 in 130,275 Americans
Peak year
2000
127 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,734
Tracked since 1944
Census
Jaquelyn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,560 people with the first name Jaquelyn, which placed it at #6,304 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
#6,304
National first-name rank
People counted
2.6K
2,560 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
58.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jaquelyn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jaquelyn is Hispanic at 58.2%. The next largest groups are White (32.1%) and Black (4.8%). 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 Jaquelyn 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 Jaquelyn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino58.2% · 1,489
- White32.1% · 822
- Black or African American4.8% · 122
- Two or more races2.5% · 63
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.2% · 56
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 8
Popularity
Jaquelyn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jaquelyn from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 1,027 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
Jaquelyn 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 Jaquelyn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jaquelyns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 11 states and territories. California, Texas, Illinois recorded the most babies named Jaquelyn, while Washington, Pennsylvania, Ohio recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 118 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jaquelyn
The name Jaquelyn is a feminine form of the masculine name Jacques, which originated from the Hebrew name Jacob. Jacob was a biblical patriarch whose name means "supplanter" or "one who follows". The name Jacques first gained popularity in France during the Middle Ages.
The spelling Jaquelyn emerged as an English variation of the French name Jacqueline. It is believed to have first appeared in England during the 13th century when the Norman French language was widely spoken among the nobility after the Norman conquest of England in 1066. The name may have derived from the Old French phrase "jaque de lin", meaning "jacket of linen".
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Jaquelyn was in a 14th-century English legal document. However, the name did not become widely used until the 16th and 17th centuries when it was associated with the French royal family. During this time, several prominent women bore the name, including Jacqueline of Bavaria, the Countess of Hainaut and Holland, who lived from 1401 to 1436.
Another notable figure with the name Jaquelyn was Jacqueline of Hainaut, the Queen of France from 1328 to 1348. She was born in 1312 and played a significant role in the Hundred Years' War between England and France. Jacqueline of Luxembourg, Countess of Holland and Hainaut, who lived from 1415 to 1472, was also a prominent figure in her time.
In literature, one of the earliest references to the name Jaquelyn can be found in the 16th-century play "The Taming of the Shrew" by William Shakespeare. The character Jacqueline is mentioned briefly in the play. The name also appears in the works of other notable English authors, such as Sir Walter Scott and Charles Dickens.
Throughout history, several women have borne the name Jaquelyn, including Jaquelyn Maugere, a 12th-century French nun and mystic; Jaquelyn of Settesoli, an Italian aristocrat and writer in the 15th century; and Jaquelyn Cochran, an American aviator and one of the first women to break the sound barrier, who lived from 1910 to 1980.
People
Jaquelyn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jaquelyn 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
Jaquelyn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jaquelyn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,631 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jaquelyn 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 130,275 US residents.
Is Jaquelyn a common name?
We classify Jaquelyn as "Rare". It ranks above 94.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,736 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jaquelyn most popular?
The single biggest year for Jaquelyn was 2000, when 127 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jaquelyn is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jaquelyn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,560 people with the name Jaquelyn, or 0.85 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,304 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 Jaquelyn 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 Jaquelyn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jaquelyn appears almost entirely female. Of the 2,559 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Jaquelyn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jaquelyn is Hispanic at 58.2%. The next largest groups are White (32.1%) and Black (4.8%). 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 Jaquelyn most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Jaquelyn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 58.2% (1,489 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 Jaquelyn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jaquelyn a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Jaquelyn 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 Jaquelyn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jaquelyn 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 Jaquelyn 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 share the name Jaquelyn?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Jaquelyn on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.