Jeffie
A feminine diminutive of the masculine name Jeffrey, meaning "earth worker" or "peaceful pledge."
Name Census estimates that about 381 living Americans carry the first name Jeffie. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 59.9% of registrations being female. The average person named Jeffie today is around 74 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jeffie births was 1918 (50 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jeffie. 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
- • Jeffie sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
- • The typical person named Jeffie is about 74 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Jeffies were born before 1962.
People living today
381
~ 1 in 899,618 Americans
Peak year
1918
50 babies that year
Average age
74
years old
1986 SSA rank
#6,278
Tracked since 1881
Census
Jeffie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 467 people with the first name Jeffie, which placed it at #21,646 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
#21,646
National first-name rank
People counted
467
467 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
58.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jeffie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jeffie is White at 58.0%. The next largest groups are Black (33.2%) and Two or More Races (4.5%). 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 Jeffie 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 Jeffie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White58.0% · 271
- Black or African American33.2% · 155
- Two or more races4.5% · 21
- Hispanic or Latino2.6% · 12
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Jeffie
Jeffie is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,689 total registrations, 677 (40.1%) were male and 1,012 (59.9%) were female.
Jeffie as a male name
- Ranked #6,278 in 1986
- 6 male births in 1986
- Peak: 1918 (20 births)
Jeffie as a female name
- Ranked #9,871 in 1976
- 5 female births in 1976
- Peak: 1916 (31 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Jeffie on both sides of the split. Of the 472 people counted with this name, 202 were male (42.8%) and 270 were female (57.2%).
Popularity
Jeffie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jeffie from the 1880s through to the 1980s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 379 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jeffie 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 Jeffie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jeffies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. Texas, Mississippi, Alabama recorded the most babies named Jeffie, while Georgia, Arkansas, Alabama recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 49 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jeffie
The given name Jeffie is a diminutive form of the masculine name Jeffrey, which has its origins in the medieval Germanic name Godfrīd. This name is composed of the elements "god" meaning "god" and "frīd" meaning "peace." The name Godfrīd evolved into various spellings and forms, including Gefroi in Norman French and Geoffrey in English.
The earliest recorded use of the name Geoffrey can be traced back to the 12th century in England. One of the most notable historical figures bearing this name was Geoffrey Chaucer, the renowned English poet and author of "The Canterbury Tales," born around 1343 and died in 1400.
The diminutive form Jeffie emerged as a pet name or nickname for Jeffrey, likely in the English-speaking world. It gained popularity as a standalone given name, particularly in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
An early recorded example of the name Jeffie can be found in the 1852 novel "Uncle Silas" by Irish writer Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, where a character named Jeffie appears. Another notable bearer of the name was Jeffie Byrne, an Australian artist and painter born in 1899 and died in 1981.
Other historical figures named Jeffie include Jeffie Longe, an English cricketer who played in the late 19th century, and Jeffie Greenwell, a British footballer who played for Newcastle United in the early 20th century.
While the name Jeffie has its roots in the Germanic name Godfrīd, it has evolved over time and has been embraced as a distinct given name, particularly in English-speaking cultures. The name carries a sense of diminutive endearment while maintaining its historical connection to the more traditional forms of Jeffrey and Geoffrey.
People
Jeffie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jeffie 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
Jeffie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jeffie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 381 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jeffie 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 899,618 US residents.
Is Jeffie a common name?
We classify Jeffie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,689 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jeffie most popular?
The single biggest year for Jeffie was 1918, when 50 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jeffie is about 74 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jeffie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 467 people with the name Jeffie, or 0.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,646 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 Jeffie 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 Jeffie?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Jeffie on both sides of the split. Of the 472 people counted with this name, 202 were male (42.8%) and 270 were female (57.2%). 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 Jeffie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jeffie is White at 58.0%. The next largest groups are Black (33.2%) and Two or More Races (4.5%). 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 Jeffie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jeffie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 58.0% (271 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 Jeffie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jeffie a female name?
Yes, 59.9% of people registered as Jeffie 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 Jeffie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jeffie 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 Jeffie 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 Jeffie?
See how many Americans are named Jeffie on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.