Jory
A variant of the French masculine name Georges meaning "farmer, worker of the earth".
Name Census estimates that about 3,708 living Americans carry the first name Jory. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 81.8% of registrations being male. The average person named Jory today is around 34 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jory births was 1991 (152 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jory. 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 Jory with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.7K
~ 1 in 92,436 Americans
Peak year
1991
152 babies that year
Average age
34
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,050
Tracked since 1947
Census
Jory in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,168 people with the first name Jory, which placed it at #5,434 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
#5,434
National first-name rank
People counted
3.2K
3,168 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
72.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jory
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jory is White at 72.0%. The next largest groups are Black (10.5%) and Hispanic (8.2%). 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 Jory 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 Jory at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White72.0% · 2,281
- Black or African American10.5% · 333
- Hispanic or Latino8.2% · 261
- Two or more races5.7% · 179
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.2% · 69
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 45
Gender
Gender distribution for Jory
Jory leans heavily male at 81.8% of total registrations, but 712 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Jory as a male name
- Ranked #7,453 in 2024
- 11 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1989 (123 births)
Jory as a female name
- Ranked #7,050 in 2024
- 16 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2017 (38 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jory leans strongly male. 2,584 people counted with this name were male (81.8%), compared with 575 female bearers (18.2%).
Popularity
Jory: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jory from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 942 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
Jory 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 Jory during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jorys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 24 states and territories. Texas, California, Illinois recorded the most babies named Jory, while Wyoming, New Mexico, New Jersey recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 38 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jory
The name Jory has its origins in the Old French language, stemming from the personal name Georgi or Jory, which was a variant of the more common name George. This name can be traced back to the Late Greek name Georgios, derived from the Greek words ge, meaning "earth," and ergon, meaning "work." As such, the name Jory carries the essence of one who works the land or has a connection to agriculture and the earth's bounty.
During the Middle Ages, the name Jory was particularly prevalent in regions of France and England, where it was often associated with rural communities and farming families. Records from this period indicate that the name was sometimes spelled as Jori, Jorre, or Jorry, reflecting the variations in regional dialects and spelling conventions of the time.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Jory can be found in the Domesday Book, a historic manuscript commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. Here, the name appears as "Jori," referring to a landholder in the county of Wiltshire, England. This historical reference underscores the name's deep roots in the medieval era.
Throughout the centuries, several notable figures have borne the name Jory. In the 14th century, Jory de Cabane was a prominent French poet and troubadour, renowned for his lyrical works celebrating love and nature. Another noteworthy individual was Jory de Montfort, a 15th-century French knight who fought alongside Joan of Arc during the Hundred Years' War.
In the realm of literature, Jory Philipot was an English writer and translator who lived during the 16th century. His most notable work was a translation of the Roman philosopher Seneca's "De Clementia" into English, which contributed to the dissemination of classical knowledge during the Renaissance period.
Moving into more modern times, Jory Graham was a 19th-century American artist and painter, known for his landscapes and depictions of Native American life. His works are now part of the collections of renowned museums, such as the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
One of the most prominent figures bearing the name Jory was Jory Vinikour, a 20th-century Russian-American dancer and choreographer. Born in 1919, Vinikour was a pioneer in the field of modern dance and founded the Jory Vinikour Dance Company, which toured extensively and brought contemporary dance to audiences around the world.
People
Jory + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jory 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
Jory: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jory?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,708 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jory 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 92,436 US residents.
Is Jory a common name?
We classify Jory as "Rare". It ranks above 95.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,913 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jory most popular?
The single biggest year for Jory was 1991, when 152 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jory is about 34 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jory in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,168 people with the name Jory, or 1.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,434 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 Jory 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 Jory?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jory leans strongly male. 2,584 people counted with this name were male (81.8%), compared with 575 female bearers (18.2%). 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 Jory?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jory is White at 72.0%. The next largest groups are Black (10.5%) and Hispanic (8.2%). 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 Jory most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jory in the 2020 Census, accounting for 72.0% (2,281 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 Jory in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jory a male name?
Yes, 81.8% of people registered as Jory 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 Jory still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jory 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 Jory 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 called Jory?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.