Jaycob
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "supplanter" or "holder of the heel".
Name Census estimates that about 4,384 living Americans carry the first name Jaycob. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Jaycob today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jaycob births was 2012 (236 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jaycob. 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 Jaycob with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Jaycob is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 17 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
4.4K
~ 1 in 78,183 Americans
Peak year
2012
236 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,402
Tracked since 1981
Census
Jaycob in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,198 people with the first name Jaycob, which placed it at #5,388 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
#5,388
National first-name rank
People counted
3.2K
3,198 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
42.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jaycob
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jaycob is Hispanic at 42.8%. The next largest groups are White (41.3%) and Black (6.7%). 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 Jaycob 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 Jaycob at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino42.8% · 1,369
- White41.3% · 1,322
- Black or African American6.7% · 213
- Two or more races5.2% · 165
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.0% · 96
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 33
Popularity
Jaycob: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jaycob from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,892 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jaycob 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 Jaycob during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jaycobs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 24 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Jaycob, while Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 113 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jaycob
The name Jaycob is derived from the Hebrew name Ya'aqov, which comes from the root word 'aqav' meaning 'to follow' or 'to be behind'. It is a biblical name that has its origins in the Old Testament, where it is the name of one of the patriarchs, Jacob. The name first appeared in the book of Genesis, which dates back to around the 6th century BC.
In the biblical narrative, Jacob was the son of Isaac and Rebekah, and the younger twin brother of Esau. He is considered an important figure in the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The name Jacob is also associated with the nation of Israel, as Jacob was later given the name 'Israel' by God.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Jaycob is in the Septuagint, an ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, which dates back to the 3rd century BC. The name was later adopted by various cultures and languages, leading to different spellings and pronunciations, such as Jakob, Jacobus, Jacopo, and Jaycob.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Jaycob or its variations. One of the most well-known is Jacob ben Asher, a renowned medieval Jewish scholar and codifier of Jewish law, who lived in Spain in the 14th century (c. 1269-1343). Another prominent figure is Jacob Bohme, a German Christian mystic and philosopher, who lived in the late 16th and early 17th centuries (1575-1624).
Other notable individuals with the name Jaycob include Jacob Grimm, one of the famous Brothers Grimm, who were German philologists and folklorists in the 19th century (1785-1863). Jacob van Ruisdael, a Dutch Golden Age painter known for his landscape paintings, lived in the 17th century (1628-1682). Jacob Burckhardt, a Swiss historian and Renaissance scholar, made significant contributions to the study of cultural history in the 19th century (1818-1897).
The name Jaycob has been a popular choice throughout history, transcending cultures and religions. Its biblical roots and connections to important figures have contributed to its enduring legacy and continue to make it a name of significance.
People
Jaycob + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jaycob 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
Jaycob: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jaycob?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,384 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jaycob 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 78,183 US residents.
Is Jaycob a common name?
We classify Jaycob as "Rare". It ranks above 96.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,437 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jaycob most popular?
The single biggest year for Jaycob was 2012, when 236 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jaycob is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jaycob in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,198 people with the name Jaycob, or 1.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,388 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 Jaycob 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 Jaycob?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jaycob appears almost entirely male. Of the 3,203 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Jaycob?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jaycob is Hispanic at 42.8%. The next largest groups are White (41.3%) and Black (6.7%). 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 Jaycob most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Jaycob in the 2020 Census, accounting for 42.8% (1,369 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 Jaycob in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jaycob a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Jaycob 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 Jaycob still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jaycob 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 Jaycob 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 named Jaycob?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.