Jaymes
A masculine name derived from the English form of James.
Name Census estimates that about 2,481 living Americans carry the first name Jaymes. It is a predominantly male name (94.6% of registrations). The average person named Jaymes today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jaymes births was 1986 (144 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jaymes. 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 Jaymes with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.5K
~ 1 in 138,152 Americans
Peak year
1986
144 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,615
Tracked since 1950
Census
Jaymes in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,158 people with the first name Jaymes, which placed it at #7,143 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
#7,143
National first-name rank
People counted
2.2K
2,158 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
62.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jaymes
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jaymes is White at 62.6%. The next largest groups are Black (16.1%) and Hispanic (11.5%). 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 Jaymes 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 Jaymes at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White62.6% · 1,350
- Black or African American16.1% · 348
- Hispanic or Latino11.5% · 248
- Two or more races6.4% · 139
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.0% · 43
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 30
Gender
Gender distribution for Jaymes
Jaymes leans heavily male at 94.6% of total registrations, but 137 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Jaymes as a male name
- Ranked #4,615 in 2024
- 22 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1986 (144 births)
Jaymes as a female name
- Ranked #8,642 in 2024
- 12 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2016 (15 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jaymes leans strongly male. 2,039 people counted with this name were male (94.6%), compared with 117 female bearers (5.4%).
Popularity
Jaymes: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jaymes from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 626 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jaymes 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 Jaymes during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jaymes' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 17 states and territories. California, Texas, Ohio recorded the most babies named Jaymes, while Tennessee, South Carolina, Washington recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 33 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jaymes
The name Jaymes originated from the Hebrew name Jacob, which means "supplanter" or "one who follows". It is a masculine given name that has been popular across various cultures and time periods.
The name Jacob first appeared in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible, referring to the patriarch Jacob, who was later renamed Israel. The name gained widespread use among Jewish communities and eventually spread to other cultures through biblical translations and religious conversions.
In the Christian tradition, the name Jacob was transliterated into Greek as Iakobos and later into Latin as Iacobus. From these forms, various European variants emerged, including James in English, Jacques in French, and Jaime in Spanish.
The name Jaymes is an English variant of James, which came into use during the Middle Ages. It is believed to have been derived from the Norman French form "Jame" or "Jammes". The earliest recorded use of the spelling "Jaymes" dates back to the 15th century.
One of the earliest and most famous bearers of the name Jaymes was Jaymes I of Scotland (1394-1437), who reigned as King of Scots from 1406 until his assassination in 1437. During his reign, he made significant contributions to the development of Scottish literature and culture.
Another notable figure was Jaymes Tyrell (c. 1455-1502), an English knight and courtier who played a pivotal role in the Wars of the Roses. He was executed for his involvement in the plot to replace King Richard III with Henry Tudor (later Henry VII).
In the realm of literature, Jaymes Howell (c. 1594-1666) was a prominent English writer and historian. He is best known for his work "Epistolae Ho-Elianae", a collection of letters that provided valuable insights into the social and political landscape of 17th-century England.
Jaymes Cook (1728-1779) was a celebrated British explorer and navigator. His voyages across the Pacific Ocean led to the mapping of many previously unknown regions and contributed significantly to the field of maritime exploration.
Lastly, Jaymes Watt (1736-1819) was a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer. He is renowned for his improvements to the steam engine, which played a crucial role in the Industrial Revolution and paved the way for modern power generation.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals who bore the name Jaymes throughout history, demonstrating its enduring presence and significance across various fields and cultures.
People
Jaymes + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jaymes 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
Jaymes: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jaymes?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,481 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jaymes 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 138,152 US residents.
Is Jaymes a common name?
We classify Jaymes as "Rare". It ranks above 94.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,551 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jaymes most popular?
The single biggest year for Jaymes was 1986, when 144 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jaymes is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jaymes in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,158 people with the name Jaymes, or 0.71 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,143 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 Jaymes 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 Jaymes?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jaymes leans strongly male. 2,039 people counted with this name were male (94.6%), compared with 117 female bearers (5.4%). 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 Jaymes?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jaymes is White at 62.6%. The next largest groups are Black (16.1%) and Hispanic (11.5%). 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 Jaymes most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jaymes in the 2020 Census, accounting for 62.6% (1,350 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 Jaymes in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jaymes a male name?
Yes, 94.6% of people registered as Jaymes 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 Jaymes still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jaymes 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 Jaymes 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 Jaymes?
Want to know how many people share the name Jaymes? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.