Jedaiah
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is praised".
Name Census estimates that about 231 living Americans carry the first name Jedaiah. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Jedaiah today is around 12 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jedaiah births was 2018 (16 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jedaiah. 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 Jedaiah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
231
~ 1 in 1,483,785 Americans
Peak year
2018
16 babies that year
Average age
12
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,750
Tracked since 1994
Census
Jedaiah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 199 people with the first name Jedaiah, which placed it at #38,518 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
#38,518
National first-name rank
People counted
199
199 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
46.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jedaiah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jedaiah is Black at 46.2%. The next largest groups are White (24.6%) and Hispanic (19.1%). 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 Jedaiah 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 Jedaiah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American46.2% · 92
- White24.6% · 49
- Hispanic or Latino19.1% · 38
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.5% · 13
- Two or more races3.5% · 7
Popularity
Jedaiah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jedaiah from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 115 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Jedaiah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jedaiah 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 Jedaiah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jedaiahs live
Origin
Meaning and history of Jedaiah
The name Jedaiah has its roots in the Hebrew language and culture, originating during ancient times. Derived from the Hebrew word "Yah," meaning "God," and "yadah," meaning "to confess" or "to praise," the name Jedaiah translates to "one who praises God" or "God has praised."
This name is mentioned in the Bible, specifically in the Old Testament book of 1 Chronicles 4:37, which records Jedaiah as a descendant of the tribe of Simeon. The name also appears in the Book of Nehemiah 3:10, referencing a man named Jedaiah who helped rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Jedaiah was Jedaiah ben Abraham Bedersi, a Jewish poet and philosopher who lived in the 13th century in Provence, France. His poetic works, primarily written in Hebrew, were widely acclaimed during his lifetime.
Another notable figure in history bearing the name Jedaiah was Jedaiah ben Abraham Hapenini, a 12th-century Jewish philosopher and commentator from Spain. He is best known for his commentary on the biblical book of Ecclesiastes, which was widely studied and referenced by scholars of his time.
In the 17th century, Jedaiah Tiah was a prominent Jewish scholar and rabbi from Prague, Czech Republic. He authored several works on Jewish law and theology, including a commentary on the Talmud, which was highly regarded among his contemporaries.
Jedaiah Morse, born in 1761 in Woodstock, Connecticut, was an American minister, geographer, and one of the founders of modern American geography. He is credited with publishing the first American geography textbook and was a pioneering figure in the field of cartography.
Jedaiah Hizhailah, born in 1825 in Jaffa, Ottoman Palestine, was a prominent Jewish scholar and educator. He founded one of the first modern Jewish schools in Palestine and played a significant role in promoting education and cultural development within the Jewish community during the 19th century.
People
Jedaiah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jedaiah 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
Jedaiah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jedaiah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 231 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jedaiah 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 1,483,785 US residents.
Is Jedaiah a common name?
We classify Jedaiah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 76.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 233 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jedaiah most popular?
The single biggest year for Jedaiah was 2018, when 16 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jedaiah is about 12 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jedaiah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 199 people with the name Jedaiah, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #38,518 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 Jedaiah 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 Jedaiah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jedaiah leans strongly male. 168 people counted with this name were male (83.6%), compared with 33 female bearers (16.4%). 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 Jedaiah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jedaiah is Black at 46.2%. The next largest groups are White (24.6%) and Hispanic (19.1%). 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 Jedaiah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Jedaiah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 46.2% (92 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 Jedaiah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jedaiah a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Jedaiah 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 Jedaiah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jedaiah 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 Jedaiah 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 Jedaiah?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.