Jakub
A masculine given name of Hebrew origin meaning "supplanter".
Name Census estimates that about 2,993 living Americans carry the first name Jakub. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Jakub today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jakub births was 2008 (184 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jakub. 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 Jakub with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.0K
~ 1 in 114,519 Americans
Peak year
2008
184 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,114
Tracked since 1981
Census
Jakub in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,802 people with the first name Jakub, which placed it at #4,771 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
#4,771
National first-name rank
People counted
3.8K
3,802 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
93.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jakub
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jakub is White at 93.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (3.2%) and Two or More Races (1.9%). 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 Jakub 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 Jakub at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White93.2% · 3,543
- Hispanic or Latino3.2% · 121
- Two or more races1.9% · 74
- Black or African American1.0% · 38
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 23
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 3
Popularity
Jakub: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jakub from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 1,403 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jakub 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 Jakub during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jakubs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 14 states and territories. Illinois, New York, New Jersey recorded the most babies named Jakub, while North Carolina, Indiana, Arizona recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 132 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jakub
The name Jakub is derived from the Hebrew name Ya'aqov, which means "supplanter" or "one who follows". It is a biblical name that appears in the Old Testament as Jacob, the son of Isaac and Rebekah, and the grandson of Abraham. The name is also found in the New Testament, where it is written as Iakobos in Greek.
The name Jakub is the Polish, Czech, Slovak, Croatian, and Slovene form of the name Jacob. In these Slavic languages, the name is pronounced with a distinct "ya" sound at the beginning, similar to the Russian variation, Yakov. The name's popularity in these regions can be traced back to the Middle Ages, when Christianity spread throughout Eastern Europe.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Jakub is Jakub de Voragine, an Italian chronicler and archbishop of Genoa who lived from around 1230 to 1298. He is best known for his compilation of saints' lives, the Legenda Aurea or Golden Legend.
Another notable figure with the name Jakub is Jakub Wujek, a Polish Jesuit priest and translator who lived from 1541 to 1597. He is famous for his translation of the Bible into Polish, known as the Wujek Bible, which greatly influenced the development of the Polish language.
In the 17th century, Jakub Sobieski was a Polish nobleman and father of King Jan III Sobieski, who is renowned for his victory over the Ottoman Empire in the Battle of Vienna in 1683. Jakub Sobieski played a significant role in his son's military campaigns and was a respected figure in his own right.
Fast-forwarding to the 19th century, Jakub Arbes was a Czech novelist, journalist, and playwright who lived from 1840 to 1914. He is considered one of the pioneers of Czech realism and is known for his works that criticized social injustice and hypocrisy.
In more recent times, Jakub Blaszczykowski is a Polish professional football player who was born in 1985. He has represented Poland in various international tournaments and is regarded as one of the country's most talented and successful footballers.
People
Jakub + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jakub 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
Jakub: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jakub?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,993 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jakub 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 114,519 US residents.
Is Jakub a common name?
We classify Jakub as "Rare". It ranks above 95.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,030 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jakub most popular?
The single biggest year for Jakub was 2008, when 184 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jakub is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jakub in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,802 people with the name Jakub, or 1.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,771 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 Jakub 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 Jakub?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jakub appears almost entirely male. Of the 3,795 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Jakub?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jakub is White at 93.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (3.2%) and Two or More Races (1.9%). 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 Jakub most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jakub in the 2020 Census, accounting for 93.2% (3,543 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 Jakub in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jakub a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Jakub 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 Jakub still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jakub 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 Jakub 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 Jakub?
See how many people share the name Jakub on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.