Jefrey
A masculine name of Old German origin meaning "peaceful traveler".
Name Census estimates that about 704 living Americans carry the first name Jefrey. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Jefrey today is around 44 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jefrey births was 1967 (20 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jefrey. 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
704
~ 1 in 486,867 Americans
Peak year
1967
20 babies that year
Average age
44
years old
2017 SSA rank
#11,384
Tracked since 1950
Popularity
Jefrey: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jefrey from the 1950s through to the 2010s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 155 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
Jefrey 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 Jefrey during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jefreys live
Origin
Meaning and history of Jefrey
The name Jefrey is a variant spelling of the name Jeffrey, which is derived from the medieval English given name and surname Geoffrey. Geoffrey itself is an anglicized version of the Old French name Geoffroi, which comes from the Old Germanic name Godefrid, meaning "peace" and "peace-maker." The name can be traced back to the 8th century and is composed of the elements "god" (god) and "frid" (peace).
The earliest recorded use of the name Geoffrey dates back to the 11th century, with the Norman conquest of England. One of the most famous early bearers of the name was Geoffrey of Monmouth, a 12th-century British cleric and writer, best known for his influential work "Historia Regum Britanniae" (History of the Kings of Britain), which helped popularize the Arthurian legends.
Another notable bearer of the name was Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343-1400), an English poet and author, widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages. His works, including "The Canterbury Tales," had a significant influence on English literature and language.
In the 16th century, Sir Jeffrey Hudson (1619-1682) was an English courtier and member of the royal court of Queen Henrietta Maria, known for his extremely short stature. He served as a courtier and entertainer to various monarchs and nobles.
The name also has religious connections, with St. Jeffrey (c. 1150-1187), a French abbot and bishop, who was canonized by the Catholic Church in the 12th century.
Other notable figures with the name Jefrey or its variants include:
1. Jeffrey Amherst (1717-1797), a British army officer and colonial administrator, known for his role in the Conquest of Canada during the French and Indian War.
2. Geoffrey Plantagenet (1113-1151), the founder of the Plantagenet dynasty, which ruled England from 1154 to 1485.
3. Geoffrey de Havilland (1882-1965), an English aviation pioneer and aircraft designer, known for founding the de Havilland Aircraft Company.
4. Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1340-1400), an English poet and author, widely regarded as the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages.
5. Geoffrey Boycott (born 1940), a former English cricketer and captain of the England cricket team, known for his defensive batting technique.
People
Jefrey + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jefrey 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
Jefrey: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jefrey?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 704 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jefrey 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 486,867 US residents.
Is Jefrey a common name?
We classify Jefrey as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 767 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jefrey most popular?
The single biggest year for Jefrey was 1967, when 20 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jefrey is about 44 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Jefrey a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Jefrey 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.
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.