Jess
A short form of the name Jessica, derived from Hebrew meaning "wealth" or "foresight".
Name Census estimates that about 13,254 living Americans carry the first name Jess. It is a predominantly male name (98.1% of registrations). The average person named Jess today is around 53 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jess births was 1915 (584 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jess. 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 Jess with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Jess is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 477 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
13K
~ 1 in 25,860 Americans
Peak year
1915
584 babies that year
Average age
53
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,616
Tracked since 1880
Census
Jess in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 18,147 people with the first name Jess, which placed it at #1,704 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
#1,704
National first-name rank
People counted
18K
18,147 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
6.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
75.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jess
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jess is White at 75.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.9%). 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 Jess 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 Jess at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White75.0% · 13,615
- Hispanic or Latino13.9% · 2,517
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.9% · 708
- Two or more races3.3% · 591
- Black or African American2.5% · 461
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 255
Gender
Gender distribution for Jess
Jess leans heavily male at 98.1% of total registrations, but 477 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Jess as a male name
- Ranked #4,616 in 2024
- 22 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1915 (577 births)
Jess as a female name
- Ranked #12,684 in 2024
- 7 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1991 (16 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Jess on both sides of the split. Of the 18,154 people counted with this name, 12,728 were male (70.1%) and 5,426 were female (29.9%).
Popularity
Jess: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jess from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 3,006 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1910s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jess 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 Jess during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jess' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 43 states and territories. California, Texas, Oklahoma recorded the most babies named Jess, while Connecticut, Maryland, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 378 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jess
The name Jess is a diminutive form of the name Jessica, which has its origins in the Hebrew language. Jessica is derived from the Hebrew name Yehoshua or Yeshua, which means "Yahweh is salvation" or "Yahweh is deliverance." The name Yeshua is the Hebrew version of the name Jesus, and it was a common name among Jewish people in ancient times.
The name Jessica first appeared in the English language in the 16th century, introduced by the Puritan movement. It gained popularity as a female name in the 19th century, particularly in the United States. The shortened form Jess emerged as a nickname for Jessica, and it has since become a gender-neutral name used for both males and females.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Jess can be found in the works of William Shakespeare. In his play "The Merchant of Venice," written around 1596, one of the characters is named Jessica. However, it is important to note that in Shakespeare's time, the name was likely meant to be a masculine name.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Jess. One of the most famous was Jess Willard, an American heavyweight boxer who held the world heavyweight championship from 1915 to 1919. He was born in 1881 and died in 1968.
Another prominent figure with the name Jess was Jess Stacy, an American jazz pianist and composer. He was born in 1904 and played a significant role in the development of the Kansas City jazz style. Jess Stacy is renowned for his contributions to the Benny Goodman Orchestra in the 1930s.
In the field of literature, Jess Stein was an American novelist and short story writer. She was born in 1923 and is best known for her novel "The Fourteenth of September," which explores the complexities of life in New York City during the 1960s.
Jess Oppenheimer was an American television writer and producer, best known for creating the popular sitcom "I Love Lucy" with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. He was born in 1913 and played a pivotal role in shaping the landscape of television comedy during the 1950s.
Lastly, Jess Franco was a Spanish filmmaker and actor known for his work in the horror and exploitation genres. Born in 1930, he directed over 200 films throughout his prolific career, earning him a reputation as one of the most prolific directors in the history of cinema.
People
Jess + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jess 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
Jess: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jess?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 13,254 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jess 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 25,860 US residents.
Is Jess a common name?
We classify Jess as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 25,522 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jess most popular?
The single biggest year for Jess was 1915, when 584 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jess is about 53 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jess in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 18,147 people with the name Jess, or 6.01 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,704 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 Jess 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 Jess?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Jess on both sides of the split. Of the 18,154 people counted with this name, 12,728 were male (70.1%) and 5,426 were female (29.9%). 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 Jess?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jess is White at 75.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.9%). 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 Jess most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jess in the 2020 Census, accounting for 75.0% (13,615 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 Jess in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jess a male name?
Yes, 98.1% of people registered as Jess 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 Jess still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jess 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 Jess 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 Jess?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Jess, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.