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
Census
Jefrey in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,124 people with the first name Jefrey, which placed it at #11,408 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
#11,408
National first-name rank
People counted
1.1K
1,124 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
44.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jefrey
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jefrey is White at 44.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (42.1%) and Black (6.0%). 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 Jefrey 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 Jefrey at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White44.1% · 496
- Hispanic or Latino42.1% · 473
- Black or African American6.0% · 68
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.2% · 59
- Two or more races2.0% · 23
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 5
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.
How common was Jefrey in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,124 people with the name Jefrey, or 0.37 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,408 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 Jefrey 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 Jefrey?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jefrey appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,134 people counted with this name, 99.1% 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 Jefrey?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jefrey is White at 44.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (42.1%) and Black (6.0%). 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 Jefrey most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jefrey in the 2020 Census, accounting for 44.1% (496 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 Jefrey in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
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.
Is Jefrey still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jefrey 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 Jefrey 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 Jefrey?
Find out how many people share the name Jefrey on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.