Jame
A diminutive English form of the masculine name James meaning "supplanter".
Name Census estimates that about 2,572 living Americans carry the first name Jame. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 89.5% of registrations being male. The average person named Jame today is around 57 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jame births was 1957 (93 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jame. 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
2.6K
~ 1 in 133,264 Americans
Peak year
1957
93 babies that year
Average age
57
years old
2024 SSA rank
#11,471
Tracked since 1903
Census
Jame in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,761 people with the first name Jame, which placed it at #4,065 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
#4,065
National first-name rank
People counted
4.8K
4,761 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
65.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jame
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jame is White at 65.0%. The next largest groups are Black (16.6%) and Hispanic (8.2%). 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 Jame 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 Jame at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White65.0% · 3,094
- Black or African American16.6% · 788
- Hispanic or Latino8.2% · 389
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.4% · 303
- Two or more races3.2% · 154
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 33
Gender
Gender distribution for Jame
Jame leans heavily male at 89.5% of total registrations, but 403 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Jame as a male name
- Ranked #11,471 in 2024
- 6 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1957 (87 births)
Jame as a female name
- Ranked #18,308 in 2006
- 5 female births in 2006
- Peak: 1980 (21 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jame leans strongly male. 3,816 people counted with this name were male (80.2%), compared with 943 female bearers (19.8%).
Popularity
Jame: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jame from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 691 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jame 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 Jame during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where James live
The SSA's state-level files cover 17 states and territories. Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia recorded the most babies named Jame, while Virginia, District of Columbia, Ohio recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 58 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jame
The name Jame is a variant of the name James, which has its origins in the Late Latin name Iacomus, derived from the Hebrew name Ya'aqov. The Hebrew name Ya'aqov is believed to mean "one who follows" or "supplanter."
The name James is mentioned in the New Testament of the Bible, referring to two of the Twelve Apostles – James, son of Zebedee, and James, son of Alphaeus. The name gained widespread popularity throughout Europe after the rise of Christianity.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Jame is found in the 13th century. Jame de Flete, an English landowner, was mentioned in records from the year 1273. In the 14th century, Jame de Fenys, a knight from Gloucestershire, England, was recorded in historical documents.
Notable historical figures with the name Jame include Jame Guthrie (1612-1661), a Scottish minister and author who was executed for his religious beliefs. Jame Aynscough (1759-1819) was an English artist known for his portraits and landscapes.
In the 19th century, Jame Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) was a Scottish scientist renowned for his groundbreaking work in the field of electromagnetism. Jame Prescott Joule (1818-1889) was an English physicist who made significant contributions to the study of heat and energy.
Another notable figure was Jame Morier (1780-1849), a British diplomat and author who wrote several novels and travelogues about Persia (modern-day Iran).
While the name Jame is relatively uncommon, it has a rich history spanning several centuries and is a variant of one of the most widely used names in the world.
People
Jame + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jame 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
Jame: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jame?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,572 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jame 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 133,264 US residents.
Is Jame a common name?
We classify Jame as "Rare". It ranks above 94.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,833 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jame most popular?
The single biggest year for Jame was 1957, when 93 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jame is about 57 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jame in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,761 people with the name Jame, or 1.58 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,065 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 Jame 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 Jame?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jame leans strongly male. 3,816 people counted with this name were male (80.2%), compared with 943 female bearers (19.8%). 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 Jame?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jame is White at 65.0%. The next largest groups are Black (16.6%) and Hispanic (8.2%). 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 Jame most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jame in the 2020 Census, accounting for 65.0% (3,094 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 Jame in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jame a male name?
Yes, 89.5% of people registered as Jame 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 Jame still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jame 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 Jame 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 common is the name Jame?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people have the name Jame at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.