Jayme
A masculine name of Old French origin meaning "supplanter".
Name Census estimates that about 16,661 living Americans carry the first name Jayme. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 78.4% of registrations being female. The average person named Jayme today is around 40 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jayme births was 1985 (696 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jayme. 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
17K
~ 1 in 20,572 Americans
Peak year
1985
696 babies that year
Average age
40
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,121
Tracked since 1938
Gender
Gender distribution for Jayme
Jayme is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 17,939 total registrations, 3,883 (21.6%) were male and 14,056 (78.4%) were female.
Jayme as a male name
- Ranked #5,121 in 2024
- 19 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1976 (125 births)
Jayme as a female name
- Ranked #5,495 in 2024
- 23 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1985 (597 births)
Popularity
Jayme: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jayme from the 1930s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 5,518 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jayme 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 Jayme during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jaymes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 47 states and territories. California, Texas, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Jayme, while New Hampshire, Wyoming, South Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 240 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jayme
The name Jayme originates from the Iberian Peninsula, most likely from the medieval Spanish and Portuguese form of the name James, which was derived from the late Latin name Iacomus, itself a vernacular form of the biblical name Jacob. The name Jacob comes from the Hebrew name Ya'aqov, meaning "supplanter" or "one who follows".
The biblical figure Jacob was the son of Isaac and Rebecca, and the father of the twelve tribes of Israel. The name Jacob is mentioned numerous times in the Hebrew Bible, also known as the Old Testament. The New Testament also refers to Jacob, as he was an important figure in the lineage of Jesus Christ.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Jayme can be found in the historical records of the Kingdom of Aragon, a medieval kingdom located in modern-day Spain. In the 13th century, Jayme I, also known as James the Conqueror (1208-1276), was the King of Aragon, Valencia, and Majorca, and is considered one of the most important rulers in the history of the Crown of Aragon.
Another notable figure with the name Jayme was Jayme Huguet (c. 1412-1492), a Spanish painter from Valencia who was active during the Renaissance period. His works can be found in various churches and museums across Spain.
In the literary world, Jayme de Burgos was a 15th-century Spanish poet who wrote in the tradition of the cancioneros, or poetic anthologies popular during the Middle Ages.
Moving to the Americas, Jayme Caravallo (1619-1695) was a Portuguese-born explorer and one of the first European settlers in the area that is now known as the state of Paraná in Brazil.
Later in history, Jayme Sidles (1857-1948) was an American educator and the first president of the University of Idaho, serving from 1892 to 1917.
People
Jayme + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jayme 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
Jayme: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jayme?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 16,661 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jayme 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 20,572 US residents.
Is Jayme a common name?
We classify Jayme as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 17,939 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jayme most popular?
The single biggest year for Jayme was 1985, when 696 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jayme is about 40 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Jayme a female name?
Yes, 78.4% of people registered as Jayme 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.
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.