Jaylynn
A feminine name blending Jay and Lynn, meaning "victorious wood" or "bright meadow".
Name Census estimates that about 9,702 living Americans carry the first name Jaylynn. It is a predominantly female name (94.1% of registrations). The average person named Jaylynn today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jaylynn births was 2009 (666 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jaylynn. 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.
Key insights
- • Jaylynn 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
9.7K
~ 1 in 35,328 Americans
Peak year
2009
666 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,016
Tracked since 1963
Census
Jaylynn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 7,415 people with the first name Jaylynn, which placed it at #3,020 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
#3,020
National first-name rank
People counted
7.4K
7,415 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
44.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jaylynn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jaylynn is White at 44.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (28.0%) and Black (15.5%). 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 Jaylynn 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 Jaylynn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White44.0% · 3,259
- Hispanic or Latino28.0% · 2,077
- Black or African American15.5% · 1,147
- Two or more races8.7% · 642
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.0% · 146
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.9% · 144
Gender
Gender distribution for Jaylynn
Jaylynn leans heavily female at 94.1% of total registrations, but 578 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Jaylynn as a male name
- Ranked #7,435 in 2024
- 11 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2008 (34 births)
Jaylynn as a female name
- Ranked #2,016 in 2024
- 97 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2009 (633 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jaylynn leans strongly female. 7,035 people counted with this name were female (94.8%), compared with 383 male bearers (5.2%).
Popularity
Jaylynn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jaylynn from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 4,256 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
Jaylynn 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 Jaylynn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jaylynns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 43 states and territories. Texas, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Jaylynn, while Idaho, Hawaii, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 175 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jaylynn
The name Jaylynn is a relatively modern combination of the names Jay and Lynn. It does not have roots in any single language or cultural tradition, but is instead a blend of two names with distinct origins.
Jay is a shortened form of the male name Jacob, which has Hebrew origins and means "supplanter" or "holder of the heel". It has been used in English-speaking countries for centuries, with records of the name dating back to the 13th century.
Lynn, on the other hand, is derived from the Celtic word "linn" meaning "lake" or "pool". It was originally a surname in Scotland and Ireland before becoming a popular given name for girls in the 20th century.
The combination of Jay and Lynn as Jaylynn appears to have emerged in the late 20th century, likely in the United States. There are no known historical references or famous figures with this exact name prior to the modern era.
However, there have been a handful of notable individuals who have borne the name Jaylynn in recent decades. One of the earliest recorded instances is Jaylynn Bailey, an American basketball player who played for the University of Oregon in the early 2000s.
Another prominent Jaylynn is Jaylynn Ferrell, an American track and field athlete who competed in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, representing the United States in the long jump.
In the world of music, Jaylynn Davidson is an American singer and songwriter who rose to prominence in the 2010s with her singles "Dangerous" and "Potential".
Jaylynn Townsend is an American actress and model who has appeared in several television shows and films, including the Netflix series "Outer Banks".
Finally, Jaylynn Hawkins is a Canadian soccer player who has represented Canada at the youth international level and currently plays professionally in the National Women's Soccer League.
While the name Jaylynn is relatively new and lacks a deep historical lineage, it has gained popularity in recent years, particularly in North America. Its combination of two distinct name elements has given it a unique and modern flair, appealing to parents seeking a distinctive name for their children.
People
Jaylynn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jaylynn 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
Jaylynn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jaylynn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 9,702 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jaylynn 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 35,328 US residents.
Is Jaylynn a common name?
We classify Jaylynn as "Rare". It ranks above 97.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 9,826 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jaylynn most popular?
The single biggest year for Jaylynn was 2009, when 666 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jaylynn 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 Jaylynn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 7,415 people with the name Jaylynn, or 2.46 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,020 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 Jaylynn 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 Jaylynn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jaylynn leans strongly female. 7,035 people counted with this name were female (94.8%), compared with 383 male bearers (5.2%). 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 Jaylynn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jaylynn is White at 44.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (28.0%) and Black (15.5%). 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 Jaylynn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jaylynn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 44.0% (3,259 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 Jaylynn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jaylynn a female name?
Yes, 94.1% of people registered as Jaylynn in the SSA data are female. 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 Jaylynn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jaylynn 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 Jaylynn 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 Jaylynn?
Want to know how many people share the name Jaylynn? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.