Jae
A Korean masculine name typically transcribed from the Chinese meaning "precious" or "admirable".
Name Census estimates that about 2,669 living Americans carry the first name Jae. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 56.8% of registrations being male. The average person named Jae today is around 30 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jae births was 2020 (71 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jae. 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 Jae with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Jae sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
People living today
2.7K
~ 1 in 128,421 Americans
Peak year
2020
71 babies that year
Average age
30
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,824
Tracked since 1918
Census
Jae in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 9,440 people with the first name Jae, which placed it at #2,562 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
#2,562
National first-name rank
People counted
9.4K
9,440 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
71.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jae
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jae is Asian/Pacific Islander at 71.6%. The next largest groups are White (13.4%) and Black (6.6%). 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 Jae 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 Jae at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander71.6% · 6,760
- White13.4% · 1,268
- Black or African American6.6% · 619
- Hispanic or Latino5.3% · 497
- Two or more races2.8% · 262
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 34
Gender
Gender distribution for Jae
Jae is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 2,919 total registrations, 1,657 (56.8%) were male and 1,262 (43.2%) were female.
Jae as a male name
- Ranked #3,824 in 2024
- 29 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2020 (44 births)
Jae as a female name
- Ranked #6,467 in 2024
- 18 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2006 (33 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Jae on both sides of the split. Of the 9,440 people counted with this name, 6,435 were male (68.2%) and 3,005 were female (31.8%).
Popularity
Jae: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jae from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 599 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Jae remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jae 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 Jae during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jaes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. Texas, California, Kansas recorded the most babies named Jae, while New York, Kansas, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 88 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jae
The name Jae is a unisex given name with roots in various cultures and languages. Its origins can be traced back to the Korean language, where it is a shortened form of the name Jaehyun, meaning "one who is gracious and kind." The name Jae is also found in other Asian languages like Japanese and Chinese, where it can be a shortened form of names like Jaeho or Jaehyung.
In the Korean culture, the name Jae gained popularity during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1897), when it was commonly used for both male and female children. One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Jae can be found in the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, a historical record that documented the lives and events of Korean monarchs and nobles.
Moving to other cultures, the name Jae has been used in various forms and spellings throughout history. In ancient Hebrew texts, the name Yael (pronounced similarly to Jae) is mentioned as the name of a heroic woman who helped defeat the Canaanite army. This name is thought to be derived from the Hebrew root word "ya'el," meaning "mountain goat."
In ancient Greece, the name Iaeus (pronounced similarly to Jae) was used as a epithet for Apollo, the god of music, poetry, and prophecy. This name is derived from the Greek word "iaō," which was a celebratory exclamation used in religious rituals.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Jae. One of the earliest recorded was Jae Heng (828-887), a Korean Buddhist monk and scholar who played a significant role in the propagation of Buddhism in the Silla Kingdom. Another notable figure was Jae Yeong (1587-1624), a Korean Confucian scholar and calligrapher who served as a minister during the Joseon Dynasty.
In more recent times, the name Jae has been carried by various artists and public figures. Jae-Myung Lee (born 1964) is a South Korean politician who served as the governor of Gyeonggi Province. Jae-Hyo Lee (born 1965) is a South Korean actor and singer known for his roles in television dramas. Jae-Yong Kim (born 1968) is the vice-chairman of Samsung Electronics and one of the most influential business leaders in South Korea.
Other notable individuals with the name Jae include Jae-Hwan Kim (born 1987), a South Korean professional baseball player, and Jae-Sung Lee (born 1989), a South Korean singer and member of the K-pop group Day6.
People
Jae + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jae 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
Jae: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jae?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,669 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jae 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 128,421 US residents.
Is Jae a common name?
We classify Jae as "Rare". It ranks above 94.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,919 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jae most popular?
The single biggest year for Jae was 2020, when 71 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jae is about 30 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jae in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 9,440 people with the name Jae, or 3.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,562 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 Jae 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 Jae?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Jae on both sides of the split. Of the 9,440 people counted with this name, 6,435 were male (68.2%) and 3,005 were female (31.8%). 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 Jae?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jae is Asian/Pacific Islander at 71.6%. The next largest groups are White (13.4%) and Black (6.6%). 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 Jae most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Jae in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.6% (6,760 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 Jae in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jae a male name?
Yes, 56.8% of people registered as Jae 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 Jae still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jae 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 Jae 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 people are called Jae?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.