Jaroslav
Of Slavic origin, meaning "gloriously fierce" or "gloriously brave".
Name Census estimates that about 0 living Americans carry the first name Jaroslav. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Jaroslav today is around 0 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jaroslav births was 1919 (7 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jaroslav. 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 Jaroslav with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Jaroslav. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
0
~ - Americans
Peak year
1919
7 babies that year
Average age
-
1919 SSA rank
#3,569
Tracked since 1916
Census
Jaroslav in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 572 people with the first name Jaroslav, which placed it at #18,742 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
#18,742
National first-name rank
People counted
572
572 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
95.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jaroslav
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jaroslav is White at 95.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (3.1%) and Two or More Races (0.5%). 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 Jaroslav 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 Jaroslav at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White95.6% · 547
- Hispanic or Latino3.1% · 18
- Two or more races0.5% · 3
- Black or African American0.3% · 2
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.3% · 2
Popularity
Jaroslav: popularity over time
Babies born per year
Decades
Jaroslav 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 Jaroslav during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1910s | 12 | 0 | 12 |
Origin
Meaning and history of Jaroslav
The name Jaroslav is of Slavic origin, deriving from the combination of the Slavic roots "jar" meaning "spring" or "vigor" and "slav" meaning "glory" or "fame". It can be translated to mean "glorious spring" or "vigorous glory". The name has been in use since at least the 9th century AD among Slavic peoples in Central and Eastern Europe.
The earliest recorded instance of the name Jaroslav is found in the Czech Ducal Dynasties, where Jaroslav I ruled as Duke of Bohemia from 1003 to 1034. He was a member of the Premyslid dynasty and played a key role in the establishment of the Kingdom of Bohemia.
In Russia, one of the most notable bearers of the name was Yaroslav I the Wise (978-1054), Grand Prince of Kyiv and a prominent figure in the establishment of the Rus' state. He is credited with the construction of the Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv and the promotion of literacy and legal reforms.
Another famous Jaroslav was Jaroslav of Opava (c. 1230-1297), a Franciscan friar and theologian from Silesia. He was a prominent scholastic philosopher and author of several works on logic and theology.
In Serbia, Jaroslav I Shishman (c. 1280-1322) was the last Tsar of the Second Bulgarian Empire, ruling from 1318 to 1322. He played a significant role in the defense of Bulgarian lands against the advancing Ottoman Turks.
A more recent historical figure with the name Jaroslav is Jaroslav Heyrovský (1890-1967), a Czech chemist and inventor of the polarographic method of chemical analysis. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1959 for his contributions to the field of electrochemistry.
People
Jaroslav + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jaroslav 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
Jaroslav: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jaroslav?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 0 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jaroslav 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 - US residents.
Is Jaroslav a common name?
We classify Jaroslav as "Very Rare". It ranks above 2.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 12 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jaroslav most popular?
The single biggest year for Jaroslav was 1919, when 7 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jaroslav is about 0 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jaroslav in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 572 people with the name Jaroslav, or 0.19 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #18,742 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 Jaroslav 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 Jaroslav?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jaroslav appears almost entirely male. Of the 561 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Jaroslav?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jaroslav is White at 95.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (3.1%) and Two or More Races (0.5%). 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 Jaroslav most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jaroslav in the 2020 Census, accounting for 95.6% (547 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 Jaroslav in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jaroslav a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Jaroslav 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 Jaroslav still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jaroslav 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 Jaroslav 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 Americans are named Jaroslav?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.