Jerold
A masculine name deriving from Old English terms meaning "spear rule".
Name Census estimates that about 4,535 living Americans carry the first name Jerold. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Jerold today is around 64 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jerold births was 1942 (228 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jerold. 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
4.5K
~ 1 in 75,580 Americans
Peak year
1942
228 babies that year
Average age
64
years old
2022 SSA rank
#10,278
Tracked since 1912
Census
Jerold in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,840 people with the first name Jerold, which placed it at #4,014 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
#4,014
National first-name rank
People counted
4.8K
4,840 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
82.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jerold
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jerold is White at 82.3%. The next largest groups are Black (9.7%) and Hispanic (2.4%). 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 Jerold 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 Jerold at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White82.3% · 3,984
- Black or African American9.7% · 468
- Hispanic or Latino2.4% · 116
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.4% · 115
- Two or more races1.9% · 93
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.3% · 64
Popularity
Jerold: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jerold from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 1,867 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jerold 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 Jerold during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jerolds live
The SSA's state-level files cover 31 states and territories. California, New York, Wisconsin recorded the most babies named Jerold, while Virginia, North Carolina, Mississippi recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 122 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jerold
The name Jerold has its origins in the Germanic languages, derived from the elements "ger" meaning spear and "wald" meaning ruler or power. It likely emerged around the 5th or 6th century AD, during the migration period of Germanic tribes across Europe.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in the 8th century work "De Origine Actibusque Getarum" by Jordanes, where a Visigothic king named Geirwalth is mentioned. This name shares a similar root and meaning to Jerold.
Throughout the Middle Ages, various spellings of the name appeared in different regions, such as Gerold, Gerald, and Geraldus. It was particularly popular among the Franks and Anglo-Saxons, with notable bearers including Gerold of Vintzgau, a 9th century Carolingian nobleman, and Geroldus Tornacensis, a 12th century Flemish theologian and chronicler.
In later centuries, the name Jerold emerged as a variant spelling, though it remained less common than the more prevalent forms like Gerald or Gerard. One of the earliest recorded individuals with this exact spelling was Jerold Mudd, an English landowner and politician who lived in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.
Other notable figures throughout history who bore the name Jerold include Jerold Zacharias, an American physicist and educator (1905-1986), Jerold Ottley, an American composer and conductor (1919-2005), Jerold Panas, an American author and fundraising consultant (born 1936), and Jerold Kohl, an American judge and politician (1905-1998).
Jerold Sedlacek was a Czech-American artist and illustrator (1922-2010) known for his work with NASA and the Apollo space program. His detailed technical illustrations played a crucial role in the success of the moon landings.
People
Jerold + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jerold 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
Jerold: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jerold?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,535 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jerold 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 75,580 US residents.
Is Jerold a common name?
We classify Jerold as "Rare". It ranks above 96.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 7,434 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jerold most popular?
The single biggest year for Jerold was 1942, when 228 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jerold is about 64 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jerold in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,840 people with the name Jerold, or 1.60 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,014 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 Jerold 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 Jerold?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jerold appears almost entirely male. Of the 4,839 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Jerold?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jerold is White at 82.3%. The next largest groups are Black (9.7%) and Hispanic (2.4%). 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 Jerold most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jerold in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.3% (3,984 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 Jerold in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jerold a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Jerold 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 Jerold still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jerold 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 Jerold 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 Jerold?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.