Yacoub
A masculine name of Arabic origin meaning "supplanter" or "following after".
Name Census estimates that about 261 living Americans carry the first name Yacoub. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Yacoub today is around 12 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yacoub births was 2020 (23 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yacoub. 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 Yacoub with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
261
~ 1 in 1,313,235 Americans
Peak year
2020
23 babies that year
Average age
12
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,792
Tracked since 1991
Census
Yacoub in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 469 people with the first name Yacoub, which placed it at #21,580 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
#21,580
National first-name rank
People counted
469
469 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yacoub
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yacoub is White at 81.4%. The next largest groups are Black (11.3%) and Two or More Races (4.1%). 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 Yacoub 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 Yacoub at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.4% · 382
- Black or African American11.3% · 53
- Two or more races4.1% · 19
- Hispanic or Latino2.1% · 10
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 5
Popularity
Yacoub: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yacoub from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 110 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Yacoub remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yacoub 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 Yacoub during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Yacoubs live
Origin
Meaning and history of Yacoub
The name Yacoub has its origins in the Arabic language and culture. It is a variant spelling of the name Jacob, which is derived from the Hebrew name Ya'aqov. The name Ya'aqov comes from the Hebrew root word עקב (aqav), meaning "to follow" or "to be behind." This likely refers to the biblical story of Jacob being born holding onto the heel of his twin brother, Esau.
The name Yacoub first appeared in ancient texts and religious scriptures, including the Torah, the Bible, and the Quran. In these texts, Jacob is a prominent figure and one of the patriarchs of the Israelites. He is also known as the father of the twelve tribes of Israel.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Yacoub dates back to the 12th century. Yacoub ibn Ishaq al-Kindi was an Arab philosopher, mathematician, and scientist who lived in the 9th century and made significant contributions to the fields of optics and medicine.
Over the centuries, several notable figures have borne the name Yacoub. Yacoub Artin Pasha (1825-1891) was an Egyptian politician and statesman who served as Prime Minister of Egypt from 1876 to 1879. Yacoub Maroun (1904-1969) was a Lebanese poet and writer known for his contributions to the Arabic literary renaissance.
Another famous bearer of the name was Yacoub Rahi (1638-1683), a prominent Lebanese Maronite scholar and theologian who wrote extensively on religious and philosophical topics. Yacoub al-Manfaluti (1875-1924) was an Egyptian writer, journalist, and educator who played a significant role in the Arabic literary movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
In the realm of sports, Yacoub Yousef Mohamed (born 1956) was an Egyptian football player who represented Egypt in the 1976 and 1984 Summer Olympics. He was part of the Egyptian national team that won the 1986 African Cup of Nations.
People
Yacoub + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yacoub as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with Y
Other first names starting with Y with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Yacoub: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yacoub?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 261 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yacoub 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 1,313,235 US residents.
Is Yacoub a common name?
We classify Yacoub as "Very Rare". It ranks above 77.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 264 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yacoub most popular?
The single biggest year for Yacoub was 2020, when 23 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yacoub is about 12 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Yacoub in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 469 people with the name Yacoub, or 0.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,580 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 Yacoub 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 Yacoub?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Yacoub appears almost entirely male. Of the 462 people counted with this name, 100.0% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Yacoub?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yacoub is White at 81.4%. The next largest groups are Black (11.3%) and Two or More Races (4.1%). 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 Yacoub most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Yacoub in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.4% (382 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 Yacoub in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yacoub a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Yacoub 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 Yacoub still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yacoub 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 Yacoub 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 Yacoub?
See how many Americans are named Yacoub on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.