Jorgen
A masculine Germanic name derived from the Old Norse "Jörundr", meaning "traveler or wanderer".
Name Census estimates that about 444 living Americans carry the first name Jorgen. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Jorgen today is around 30 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jorgen births was 2003 (20 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jorgen. 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
444
~ 1 in 771,969 Americans
Peak year
2003
20 babies that year
Average age
30
years old
2022 SSA rank
#10,299
Tracked since 1914
Popularity
Jorgen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jorgen from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 131 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
Jorgen 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 Jorgen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jorgens live
Origin
Meaning and history of Jorgen
The name Jorgen originated from the Old Norse language, with its roots dating back to the Viking age of the 8th to 11th centuries. It is a compound name derived from the elements "ger" meaning "spear" and "gunnr" meaning "battle" or "war". Together, the name Jorgen can be interpreted as "spear warrior" or "battle spear".
The name was particularly popular among the Scandinavian peoples, including the Danes, Norwegians, and Swedes. As the Vikings explored and settled in various regions across Europe, the name spread and took on different spellings and variations in different languages. For instance, it became Jürgen in German and Jorge in Spanish and Portuguese.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Jorgen can be found in the Icelandic Sagas, which were written in the 13th and 14th centuries. These sagas chronicled the stories and adventures of Viking explorers and settlers, and the name Jorgen appeared several times in these tales.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Jorgen. One of the earliest was Jorgen Bjørnson (1290-1349), a Norwegian nobleman and military commander who played a significant role in the Norwegian-Swedish conflicts of the 14th century.
Another prominent figure was Jorgen Eriksen (1550-1616), a Danish astronomer and mathematician who made important contributions to the study of celestial mechanics and the development of the Rudolphine Tables, which were used for astronomical calculations.
In the 17th century, Jorgen Reedtz (1619-1667) was a Danish statesman and diplomat who served as the Grand Chancellor of Denmark. He played a crucial role in negotiating the Treaty of Copenhagen, which ended the Second Northern War between Denmark and Sweden.
In the world of literature, Jorgen Stein (1851-1920) was a Norwegian novelist and playwright who is considered one of the pioneers of modern Norwegian literature. His works often explored themes of social injustice and the struggles of the working class.
More recently, Jorgen Ingmann (1925-2015) was a Danish guitarist and bandleader who gained international fame in the 1960s with his instrumental rendition of the song "Apache", which became a hit in several countries.
People
Jorgen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jorgen 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
Jorgen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jorgen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 444 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jorgen 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 771,969 US residents.
Is Jorgen a common name?
We classify Jorgen as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 489 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jorgen most popular?
The single biggest year for Jorgen was 2003, when 20 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jorgen is about 30 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Jorgen a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Jorgen 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.