Jaykob
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "supplanter" or "holding the heel".
Name Census estimates that about 1,101 living Americans carry the first name Jaykob. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Jaykob today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jaykob births was 2012 (75 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jaykob. 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 Jaykob with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Jaykob is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 18 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.1K
~ 1 in 311,312 Americans
Peak year
2012
75 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,593
Tracked since 1990
Census
Jaykob in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 822 people with the first name Jaykob, which placed it at #14,360 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
#14,360
National first-name rank
People counted
822
822 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
52.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jaykob
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jaykob is White at 52.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (34.8%) and Two or More Races (5.4%). 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 Jaykob 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 Jaykob at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White52.6% · 432
- Hispanic or Latino34.8% · 286
- Two or more races5.4% · 44
- Black or African American4.0% · 33
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.7% · 22
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 5
Popularity
Jaykob: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jaykob 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 490 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
Jaykob 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 Jaykob during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jaykobs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 9 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Jaykob, while Tennessee, New York, Colorado recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 34 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jaykob
The name Jaykob is a variant spelling of the Hebrew name Jacob, which has its origins in the biblical story of the patriarch Jacob from the Book of Genesis. The name Jacob is derived from the Hebrew word "ya'aqob," which means "supplanter" or "one who follows at the heel." This refers to the biblical story where Jacob was born holding onto the heel of his twin brother Esau.
In the Bible, Jacob is the son of Isaac and Rebekah, and the grandson of Abraham. He is an important figure in the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Jacob's name is also associated with the term "Israel," as he is said to have wrestled with an angel and received the name "Israel," which means "one who struggles with God."
The earliest recorded use of the name Jacob can be traced back to ancient Hebrew texts, including the Torah and the Old Testament. Throughout history, the name has been popular among Jewish communities and has also been adopted by Christians and Muslims.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Jaykob can be found in medieval English records, where it was likely a variant spelling influenced by regional dialects or scribal errors. However, the name Jaykob remained relatively uncommon until more recent times.
Notable historical figures with the name Jacob or its variants include:
1. Jacob ben Asher (1269-1343), a prominent Jewish rabbi and codifier of Jewish law.
2. Jacob Bohme (1575-1624), a German Christian mystic and philosopher.
3. Jacob van Ruisdael (1628-1682), a Dutch Golden Age painter known for his landscape paintings.
4. Jacob Grimm (1785-1863), a German philologist and one of the Brothers Grimm, famous for their collection of folktales.
5. Jacob Riis (1849-1914), a Danish-American social reformer and photographer who documented the living conditions of the poor in New York City.
These are just a few examples of notable historical figures who bore the name Jacob or its variants, showcasing the widespread use and recognition of this name throughout various cultures and time periods.
People
Jaykob + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jaykob 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
Jaykob: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jaykob?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,101 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jaykob 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 311,312 US residents.
Is Jaykob a common name?
We classify Jaykob as "Rare". It ranks above 90.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,114 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jaykob most popular?
The single biggest year for Jaykob was 2012, when 75 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jaykob is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jaykob in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 822 people with the name Jaykob, or 0.27 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,360 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 Jaykob 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 Jaykob?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jaykob appears almost entirely male. Of the 822 people counted with this name, 99.4% 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 Jaykob?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jaykob is White at 52.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (34.8%) and Two or More Races (5.4%). 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 Jaykob most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jaykob in the 2020 Census, accounting for 52.6% (432 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 Jaykob in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jaykob a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Jaykob 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 Jaykob still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jaykob 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 Jaykob 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 Jaykob?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.