Jeffrey
A masculine name of English origin derived from an Old German word meaning "travelling peace".
Name Census estimates that about 854,629 living Americans carry the first name Jeffrey. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Jeffrey today is around 54 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jeffrey births was 1962 (33,614 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jeffrey. 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 Jeffrey with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Jeffrey is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 3,498 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1960s, recent registration numbers for Jeffrey have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
855K
~ 1 in 401 Americans
Peak year
1962
33,614 babies that year
Average age
54
years old
2024 SSA rank
#520
Tracked since 1885
Census
Jeffrey in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 735,424 people with the first name Jeffrey, which placed it at #46 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
#46
National first-name rank
People counted
735K
735,424 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
243.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
86.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jeffrey
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jeffrey is White at 86.9%. The next largest groups are Black (4.5%) and Hispanic (3.7%). 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 Jeffrey 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 Jeffrey at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White86.9% · 639,256
- Black or African American4.5% · 33,124
- Hispanic or Latino3.7% · 27,286
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.3% · 16,702
- Two or more races2.2% · 16,220
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 2,836
Gender
Gender distribution for Jeffrey
Out of the 982,547 babies given the name Jeffrey since 1880, 99.6% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Jeffrey as a male name
- Ranked #520 in 2024
- 587 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1962 (33,536 births)
Jeffrey as a female name
- Ranked #18,026 in 2012
- 5 female births in 2012
- Peak: 1970 (140 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jeffrey appears almost entirely male. Of the 735,428 people counted with this name, 99.9% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Jeffrey: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jeffrey from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 302,938 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jeffrey 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 Jeffrey during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jeffreys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, New York, Ohio recorded the most babies named Jeffrey, while Wyoming, Alaska, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 19,195 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jeffrey
The name Jeffrey originated from an Ancient Germanic name. It is a compound name derived from the words "gavi" meaning district and "frid" meaning peace. The name can be roughly translated to mean "peace district" or "peaceful region". The earliest recorded spelling of the name was "Gaufridus" in the 12th century.
The name first gained popularity in medieval England and Normandy during the Middle Ages. It spread throughout Western Europe as the Normans expanded their territories. During this time, the name was also adopted into the French language and took on the spelling of "Geoffroy" in France.
One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name was Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou in the 12th century. He was the father of King Henry II of England and laid the foundations for the Plantagenet dynasty that ruled England for several centuries.
In the 13th century, the name appeared in the literary works of Chaucer, who included characters named Geoffrey in his famous Canterbury Tales. This helped to further popularize the name in English-speaking regions.
Another notable bearer of the name was Geoffrey Chaucer himself, the famous English poet and author who lived from around 1343 to 1400. He is considered the father of English literature and his works had a significant influence on the development of the English language.
In the 15th century, Geoffrey Tate served as the Lord Mayor of London in 1473. He was a prominent figure in the city's governance during that era.
Fast forward to the 20th century, and one of the most famous bearers of the name was Geoffrey Boycott, the English cricketer who played for Yorkshire and England between 1962 and 1986. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest opening batsmen in the history of the sport.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Jeffrey
People
Jeffrey + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jeffrey 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
Jeffrey: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jeffrey?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 854,629 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jeffrey 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 401 US residents.
Is Jeffrey a common name?
We classify Jeffrey as "Very Common". It ranks above 100% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 982,547 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jeffrey most popular?
The single biggest year for Jeffrey was 1962, when 33,614 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jeffrey is about 54 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jeffrey in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 735,424 people with the name Jeffrey, or 243.49 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #46 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 Jeffrey 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 Jeffrey?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jeffrey appears almost entirely male. Of the 735,428 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Jeffrey?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jeffrey is White at 86.9%. The next largest groups are Black (4.5%) and Hispanic (3.7%). 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 Jeffrey most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jeffrey in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.9% (639,256 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 Jeffrey in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jeffrey a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Jeffrey 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 Jeffrey still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jeffrey 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 Jeffrey 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 Jeffrey?
You can see how many Americans are named Jeffrey on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.