Jimmie
Diminutive form of the masculine name James, of Hebrew origin meaning "supplanter" or "one who grasps the heel".
Name Census estimates that about 58,672 living Americans carry the first name Jimmie. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 83.0% of registrations being male. The average person named Jimmie today is around 67 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jimmie births was 1934 (3,451 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jimmie. 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 Jimmie with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Jimmie is about 67 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Jimmies were born before 1969.
- • Compared to the 1930s, recent registration numbers for Jimmie have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
59K
~ 1 in 5,842 Americans
Peak year
1934
3,451 babies that year
Average age
67
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,411
Tracked since 1880
Census
Jimmie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 47,103 people with the first name Jimmie, which placed it at #943 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
#943
National first-name rank
People counted
47K
47,103 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
15.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
61.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jimmie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jimmie is White at 61.9%. The next largest groups are Black (29.3%) and Two or More Races (3.4%). 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 Jimmie 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 Jimmie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White61.9% · 29,137
- Black or African American29.3% · 13,813
- Two or more races3.4% · 1,617
- Hispanic or Latino3.3% · 1,533
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 727
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 276
Gender
Gender distribution for Jimmie
Jimmie leans heavily male at 83.0% of total registrations, but 22,994 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Jimmie as a male name
- Ranked #3,411 in 2024
- 34 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1934 (2,837 births)
Jimmie as a female name
- Ranked #14,187 in 2023
- 6 female births in 2023
- Peak: 1934 (614 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jimmie leans strongly male. 39,790 people counted with this name were male (84.5%), compared with 7,310 female bearers (15.5%).
Popularity
Jimmie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jimmie from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1930s, with 31,275 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1930s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jimmie 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 Jimmie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jimmies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 45 states and territories. Texas, Mississippi, Alabama recorded the most babies named Jimmie, while Nevada, Alaska, North Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 2,787 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jimmie
The given name Jimmie is an English diminutive form of the male name James, derived from the Hebrew name Jacob. The name Jacob can be traced back to the Old Testament of the Bible, where it refers to one of the patriarchs of the Israelites, the son of Isaac and Rebekah. Jacob was later renamed Israel by God, and his name became associated with the nation of Israel.
The name James emerged as an English form of Jacob during the Middle Ages. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name James is found in the New Testament, where it refers to two of Jesus' apostles: James, the son of Zebedee, and James, the son of Alphaeus. The name gained popularity in the Christian world due to its association with these biblical figures.
The diminutive form Jimmie arose as a shortened version of James, likely during the late Middle Ages or early modern period. It became a common nickname or pet name for those named James, particularly in English-speaking countries.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Jimmie can be found in historical records from the 16th century. For example, Jimmie Browne was an English pirate active in the Caribbean Sea in the late 1500s.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the given name Jimmie, including:
1. Jimmie Rodgers (1897-1933), an American singer-songwriter known as the "Father of Country Music."
2. Jimmie Foxx (1907-1967), an American baseball player and member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
3. Jimmie Dodd (1910-1964), an American actor and musician best known as the leader of the Mouseketeers on the original Mickey Mouse Club television series.
4. Jimmie Lunceford (1902-1947), an American jazz alto saxophonist and bandleader during the swing era.
5. Jimmie Heuga (1943-2010), an American alpine ski racer and pioneer in the development of adaptive sports for people with disabilities.
The name Jimmie has been a popular choice throughout the English-speaking world, particularly in the United States and United Kingdom. While its popularity has waned in recent decades, it remains a recognizable and historically significant name with roots dating back to ancient Hebrew and biblical times.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Jimmie
People
Jimmie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jimmie 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
Jimmie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jimmie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 58,672 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jimmie 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 5,842 US residents.
Is Jimmie a common name?
We classify Jimmie as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 135,228 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jimmie most popular?
The single biggest year for Jimmie was 1934, when 3,451 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jimmie is about 67 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jimmie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 47,103 people with the name Jimmie, or 15.60 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #943 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 Jimmie 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 Jimmie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jimmie leans strongly male. 39,790 people counted with this name were male (84.5%), compared with 7,310 female bearers (15.5%). 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 Jimmie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jimmie is White at 61.9%. The next largest groups are Black (29.3%) and Two or More Races (3.4%). 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 Jimmie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jimmie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 61.9% (29,137 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 Jimmie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jimmie a male name?
Yes, 83.0% of people registered as Jimmie 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 Jimmie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jimmie 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 Jimmie 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 Americans are named Jimmie?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Jimmie at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.