Jessup
An anglicized spelling of the Welsh name Jesse meaning "gift".
Name Census estimates that about 459 living Americans carry the first name Jessup. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Jessup today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jessup births was 1995 (23 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jessup. 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
459
~ 1 in 746,741 Americans
Peak year
1995
23 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2023 SSA rank
#8,543
Tracked since 1948
Census
Jessup in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 442 people with the first name Jessup, which placed it at #22,485 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
#22,485
National first-name rank
People counted
442
442 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jessup
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jessup is White at 81.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.0%) and Hispanic (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 Jessup 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 Jessup at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.0% · 358
- Two or more races5.0% · 22
- Hispanic or Latino4.5% · 20
- Black or African American4.3% · 19
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.2% · 14
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.0% · 9
Popularity
Jessup: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jessup from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 151 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jessup 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 Jessup during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jessup
The name Jessup is a variant of the biblical name Jesse, which is derived from the Hebrew name "Yishai" meaning "gift" or "present". It traces its roots back to ancient Israel, where Jesse was the father of King David, as mentioned in the Old Testament of the Bible.
Jessup is thought to have emerged as a surname in England during the Middle Ages, possibly derived from the Old English words "gēs" meaning "gander" and "hop" meaning "small valley". This suggests that the name may have initially referred to a location or a person associated with a particular place.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Jessup dates back to the 13th century, when a person named Walter Jessop was mentioned in the Pipe Rolls of Lincolnshire in 1275. In the 14th century, a William Jessup was recorded in the Subsidy Rolls of Sussex in 1327.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Jessup. One of the most famous was Henry Harris Jessup (1832-1910), an American Presbyterian missionary who served in Syria and Lebanon for over 50 years and founded the American University of Beirut.
Another prominent figure was Theodore Jessup (1797-1868), an American lawyer and jurist who served as the sixth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania from 1858 to 1868.
In the field of literature, Jessup Hartwell (1828-1901) was an American poet and editor who published several collections of poetry, including "The Mound Builders" and "Bright Dreams and Darker Realities".
In the world of sports, Wilbur Jessup (1902-1955) was an American football player and coach who played for the Canton Bulldogs and later served as the head coach at the University of Pittsburgh from 1937 to 1942.
Finally, in the realm of science, Morris K. Jessup (1900-1959) was an American writer and amateur UFO researcher who authored the book "The Case for the UFO", which became a subject of interest in the field of ufology.
People
Jessup + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jessup 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
Jessup: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jessup?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 459 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jessup 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 746,741 US residents.
Is Jessup a common name?
We classify Jessup as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 472 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jessup most popular?
The single biggest year for Jessup was 1995, when 23 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jessup 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 Jessup in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 442 people with the name Jessup, or 0.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #22,485 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 Jessup 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 Jessup?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jessup leans strongly male. 431 people counted with this name were male (98.2%), compared with 8 female bearers (1.8%). 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 Jessup?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jessup is White at 81.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.0%) and Hispanic (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 Jessup most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jessup in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.0% (358 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 Jessup in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jessup a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Jessup 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 Jessup still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jessup 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 Jessup 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 have Jessup as a first name?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.