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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Jayme with official rankings and popularity over time.
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
Census
Jayme in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 15,959 people with the first name Jayme, which placed it at #1,828 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
#1,828
National first-name rank
People counted
16K
15,959 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
5.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
79.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jayme
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jayme is White at 79.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.3%) and Black (4.6%). 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 Jayme 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 Jayme at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White79.6% · 12,707
- Hispanic or Latino8.3% · 1,317
- Black or African American4.6% · 742
- Two or more races4.2% · 674
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.1% · 328
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 191
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)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Jayme on both sides of the split. Of the 15,960 people counted with this name, 3,295 were male (20.6%) and 12,665 were female (79.4%).
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.
How common was Jayme in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 15,959 people with the name Jayme, or 5.28 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,828 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 Jayme 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 Jayme?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Jayme on both sides of the split. Of the 15,960 people counted with this name, 3,295 were male (20.6%) and 12,665 were female (79.4%). 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 Jayme?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jayme is White at 79.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.3%) and Black (4.6%). 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 Jayme most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jayme in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.6% (12,707 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 Jayme in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
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.
Is Jayme still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jayme 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 Jayme 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 Jayme?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.