Jr
Short for "junior", designating a son with the same name as his father.
Name Census estimates that about 1,334 living Americans carry the first name Jr. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Jr today is around 29 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jr births was 1989 (43 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jr. 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
1.3K
~ 1 in 256,937 Americans
Peak year
1989
43 babies that year
Average age
29
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,010
Tracked since 1915
Popularity
Jr: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jr from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 312 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Jr remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jr 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 Jr during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jrs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 9 states and territories. California, Texas, Georgia recorded the most babies named Jr, while New York, Arizona, Ohio recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 41 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jr
The name Jr is a diminutive suffix derived from the Latin word "junior," meaning "younger." It is commonly used in English-speaking cultures to distinguish a son from his father who shares the same given name. The origins of this naming convention can be traced back to ancient Rome, where it was customary for the eldest son to inherit his father's name and subsequent sons to have the same name with a numerical suffix added.
In the early days of Roman civilization, the suffix "Jr" was not yet in use. Instead, the terms "major" and "minor" were employed to differentiate between the elder and younger individuals sharing the same name. It was not until the later years of the Roman Empire that the abbreviations "Sr." and "Jr." came into widespread use, becoming a standardized practice in official records and legal documents.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the use of "Jr." can be found in the writings of the Roman historian Livy, who lived from 59 BC to 17 AD. In his seminal work, "Ab Urbe Condita," Livy mentions a character named Gaius Julius Caesar Jr., referring to the son of the famous Roman general and statesman Julius Caesar.
Throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance period, the practice of using the suffix "Jr." continued to be observed in various European cultures, particularly among aristocratic families and the nobility. Notable examples include Henry VII Jr., the son of King Henry VII of England, who was born in 1491 and died in infancy, and Philip II Jr., the son of King Philip II of Spain, born in 1578 and died in 1621.
As the use of surnames became more prevalent in the Western world, the practice of adding "Jr." to a given name also gained popularity among commoners and non-aristocratic families. One of the earliest documented cases of this can be found in the records of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, where a man named John Winthrop Jr., the son of the colony's founder John Winthrop, was born in 1606.
Other famous historical figures who bore the suffix "Jr." include American founding father Benjamin Franklin Jr. (1706-1790), the son of Benjamin Franklin; Confederate General Robert E. Lee Jr. (1843-1914), the youngest son of Robert E. Lee; and author Ernest Hemingway Jr. (1915-2001), the son of Nobel Prize-winning writer Ernest Hemingway.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Jr
People
Jr + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jr 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
Jr: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jr?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,334 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jr 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 256,937 US residents.
Is Jr a common name?
We classify Jr as "Rare". It ranks above 91.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,705 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jr most popular?
The single biggest year for Jr was 1989, when 43 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jr is about 29 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Jr a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Jr 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.