Jessup
An anglicized spelling of the Welsh name Jesse meaning "gift".
Name Census estimates that about 459 living Americans carry the first name Jessup. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Jessup today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jessup births was 1995 (23 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jessup. 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
459
~ 1 in 746,741 Americans
Peak year
1995
23 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2023 SSA rank
#8,543
Tracked since 1948
Popularity
Jessup: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jessup from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 151 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jessup 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 Jessup during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jessup
The name Jessup is a variant of the biblical name Jesse, which is derived from the Hebrew name "Yishai" meaning "gift" or "present". It traces its roots back to ancient Israel, where Jesse was the father of King David, as mentioned in the Old Testament of the Bible.
Jessup is thought to have emerged as a surname in England during the Middle Ages, possibly derived from the Old English words "gēs" meaning "gander" and "hop" meaning "small valley". This suggests that the name may have initially referred to a location or a person associated with a particular place.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Jessup dates back to the 13th century, when a person named Walter Jessop was mentioned in the Pipe Rolls of Lincolnshire in 1275. In the 14th century, a William Jessup was recorded in the Subsidy Rolls of Sussex in 1327.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Jessup. One of the most famous was Henry Harris Jessup (1832-1910), an American Presbyterian missionary who served in Syria and Lebanon for over 50 years and founded the American University of Beirut.
Another prominent figure was Theodore Jessup (1797-1868), an American lawyer and jurist who served as the sixth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania from 1858 to 1868.
In the field of literature, Jessup Hartwell (1828-1901) was an American poet and editor who published several collections of poetry, including "The Mound Builders" and "Bright Dreams and Darker Realities".
In the world of sports, Wilbur Jessup (1902-1955) was an American football player and coach who played for the Canton Bulldogs and later served as the head coach at the University of Pittsburgh from 1937 to 1942.
Finally, in the realm of science, Morris K. Jessup (1900-1959) was an American writer and amateur UFO researcher who authored the book "The Case for the UFO", which became a subject of interest in the field of ufology.
People
Jessup + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jessup 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
Jessup: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jessup?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 459 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jessup 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 746,741 US residents.
Is Jessup a common name?
We classify Jessup as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 472 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jessup most popular?
The single biggest year for Jessup was 1995, when 23 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jessup is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Jessup a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Jessup 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.