Jettie
A diminutive of Jett, a pet name for someone lively or energetic.
Name Census estimates that about 788 living Americans carry the first name Jettie. It is a predominantly female name (94.9% of registrations). The average person named Jettie today is around 66 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jettie births was 1918 (109 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jettie. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Jettie is about 66 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Jetties were born before 1970.
People living today
788
~ 1 in 434,967 Americans
Peak year
1918
109 babies that year
Average age
66
years old
1979 SSA rank
#6,505
Tracked since 1880
Census
Jettie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 994 people with the first name Jettie, which placed it at #12,493 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
#12,493
National first-name rank
People counted
994
994 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
58.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jettie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jettie is White at 58.1%. The next largest groups are Black (35.4%) and Two or More Races (3.2%). 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 Jettie 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 Jettie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White58.1% · 578
- Black or African American35.4% · 352
- Two or more races3.2% · 32
- Hispanic or Latino2.0% · 20
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 9
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 3
Gender
Gender distribution for Jettie
Jettie leans heavily female at 94.9% of total registrations, but 197 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Jettie as a male name
- Ranked #6,505 in 1979
- 5 male births in 1979
- Peak: 1913 (10 births)
Jettie as a female name
- Ranked #14,198 in 2024
- 6 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1918 (103 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jettie leans strongly female. 919 people counted with this name were female (92.1%), compared with 79 male bearers (7.9%).
Popularity
Jettie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jettie from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 776 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jettie 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 Jettie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jetties live
The SSA's state-level files cover 13 states and territories. Alabama, North Carolina, Texas recorded the most babies named Jettie, while West Virginia, Oklahoma, Louisiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 108 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jettie
The given name Jettie is believed to have originated as a diminutive form of the French name Jette, which itself is a pet name or nickname derived from the Germanic name Guda. The name Guda is composed of the elements "gud" meaning "god" and the diminutive suffix "-a". This suggests that Jettie has its roots in ancient Germanic languages and cultures, possibly dating back to the early medieval period.
The earliest recorded use of the name Jettie can be traced back to the late 19th century in parts of Europe, particularly in France and the Netherlands. It is worth noting that during this time, the name was more commonly spelled as "Jettje" or "Jetje" in Dutch-speaking regions.
One of the earliest known individuals with the name Jettie was Jettie Posthuma, a Dutch writer and journalist born in 1868 in the Netherlands. She was known for her contributions to various Dutch publications and her advocacy for women's rights.
Another notable figure named Jettie was Jettie Jansen, a Dutch painter and illustrator born in 1881. Her works often depicted scenes from daily life and were widely acclaimed for their realism and attention to detail.
In the United States, the name Jettie gained some popularity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly among families with Dutch or French ancestry. One notable American with this name was Jettie Fay Woodruff, born in 1876, who was a prominent educator and advocate for women's education in the state of Texas.
Another individual worth mentioning is Jettie Deering, an American philanthropist and socialite born in 1870. She was known for her contributions to various charitable organizations and her support for the arts and cultural institutions in her hometown of Chicago.
Finally, Jettie Spencer was an American singer and actress born in 1889. She had a successful career on the vaudeville stage and appeared in several Broadway productions in the early 20th century.
While the name Jettie may not be as widely used today as it once was, its origins can be traced back to ancient Germanic roots, and it has been borne by several notable individuals throughout history, particularly in Europe and the United States.
People
Jettie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jettie 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
Jettie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jettie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 788 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jettie 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 434,967 US residents.
Is Jettie a common name?
We classify Jettie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,853 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jettie most popular?
The single biggest year for Jettie was 1918, when 109 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jettie is about 66 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jettie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 994 people with the name Jettie, or 0.33 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,493 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 Jettie 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 Jettie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jettie leans strongly female. 919 people counted with this name were female (92.1%), compared with 79 male bearers (7.9%). 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 Jettie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jettie is White at 58.1%. The next largest groups are Black (35.4%) and Two or More Races (3.2%). 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 Jettie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jettie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 58.1% (578 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 Jettie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jettie a female name?
Yes, 94.9% of people registered as Jettie in the SSA data are female. 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 Jettie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jettie 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 Jettie 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 common is the name Jettie?
See how many Americans are named Jettie on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.