Jai
Jai is given to both girls and boys: 19 girls and 122 boys were given it in 2025 (#6,204 among girls’ names and #1,460 among boys’, #2,815 among all names counting both); 6,535 Americans have been recorded with it since 1957 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 6,380 Americans named Jai and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 17 years old and half are between 9 and 27.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Jai by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Jai mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Jai is “a male given name from Sanskrit used in India.”
/d͡ʒeɪ/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Jai?
#1,460 among boys’ names, 2025
Jai fell from #1,226 in 2015 to #1,460 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 78.3 to 71.4 per million.
234 babies in 2014, the peak
Jai peaked in 2014, when 234 babies were given it (201 boys, #1,016 among boys’ names). The 141 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 60% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 19 | #6,204 | 122 | #1,460 |
| 2024 | 37 | #3,997 | 151 | #1,298 |
| 2023 | 32 | #4,400 | 165 | #1,209 |
| 2022 | 37 | #3,995 | 161 | #1,222 |
| 2021 | 39 | #3,833 | 165 | #1,191 |
| 2020 | 34 | #4,106 | 162 | #1,190 |
| 2019 | 44 | #3,525 | 166 | #1,170 |
| 2018 | 43 | #3,581 | 149 | #1,242 |
| 2017 | 44 | #3,505 | 136 | #1,327 |
| 2016 | 42 | #3,672 | 141 | #1,292 |
Every recorded year (66)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 45 | #3,503 | 150 | #1,226 |
| 2014 | 33 | #4,389 | 201 | #1,016 |
| 2013 | 33 | #4,369 | 157 | #1,153 |
| 2012 | 33 | #4,423 | 142 | #1,246 |
| 2011 | 33 | #4,398 | 153 | #1,167 |
| 2010 | 34 | #4,337 | 154 | #1,176 |
| 2009 | 46 | #3,532 | 168 | #1,100 |
| 2008 | 42 | #3,804 | 140 | #1,244 |
| 2007 | 31 | #4,734 | 145 | #1,219 |
| 2006 | 44 | #3,582 | 154 | #1,126 |
| 2005 | 36 | #3,978 | 145 | #1,129 |
| 2004 | 32 | #4,316 | 157 | #1,039 |
| 2003 | 31 | #4,246 | 139 | #1,104 |
| 2002 | 49 | #2,984 | 122 | #1,160 |
| 2001 | 32 | #3,971 | 120 | #1,150 |
| 2000 | 35 | #3,683 | 97 | #1,322 |
| 1999 | 33 | #3,654 | 79 | #1,461 |
| 1998 | 51 | #2,665 | 79 | #1,435 |
| 1997 | 27 | #4,051 | 49 | #1,898 |
| 1996 | 24 | #4,357 | 52 | #1,766 |
| 1995 | 38 | #3,039 | 60 | #1,563 |
| 1994 | 27 | #3,929 | 38 | #2,139 |
| 1993 | 10 | #8,281 | 29 | #2,532 |
| 1992 | 7 | #10,906 | 36 | #2,139 |
| 1991 | 15 | #6,054 | 32 | #2,258 |
| 1990 | 7 | #10,623 | 33 | #2,185 |
| 1989 | 13 | #6,291 | 23 | #2,721 |
| 1988 | 6 | #10,865 | 25 | #2,394 |
| 1987 | under 5 | 24 | #2,356 | |
| 1986 | 10 | #6,782 | 27 | #2,121 |
| 1985 | 9 | #7,175 | 31 | #1,887 |
| 1984 | 16 | #4,568 | 18 | #2,646 |
| 1983 | 8 | #7,556 | 41 | #1,497 |
| 1982 | 8 | #7,732 | 27 | #2,023 |
| 1981 | 9 | #7,006 | 39 | #1,560 |
| 1980 | 8 | #7,661 | 59 | #1,193 |
| 1979 | 11 | #5,887 | 42 | #1,446 |
| 1978 | 7 | #7,941 | 43 | #1,419 |
| 1977 | 8 | #7,125 | 48 | #1,296 |
| 1976 | under 5 | 46 | #1,307 | |
| 1975 | 11 | #5,274 | 41 | #1,366 |
| 1974 | 8 | #6,463 | 36 | #1,455 |
| 1973 | 6 | #7,786 | 37 | #1,388 |
| 1972 | under 5 | 28 | #1,663 | |
| 1971 | under 5 | 26 | #1,754 | |
| 1970 | under 5 | 15 | #2,439 | |
| 1969 | under 5 | 38 | #1,287 | |
| 1968 | 12 | #4,082 | 28 | #1,488 |
| 1967 | 9 | #4,748 | 28 | #1,461 |
| 1966 | under 5 | 10 | #2,703 | |
| 1963 | under 5 | 8 | #3,170 | |
| 1962 | 7 | #5,508 | 8 | #3,160 |
| 1960 | under 5 | 8 | #3,200 | |
| 1959 | under 5 | 7 | #3,417 | |
| 1958 | 5 | #6,463 | under 5 | |
| 1957 | 5 | #6,468 | under 5 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Jai a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 6,535 Americans recorded as Jai, 21% are girls and 79% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Jai: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Jai, and how old are they?
6,380 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 6,535 Americans ever recorded as Jai. The median Jai alive today is 17 years old; half are between 9 and 27.
The 2020 Census counted 6,708 people named Jai (1,526 women and girls, 5,182 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 5,350 born in the U.S. The Census count is 25% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Jai rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 38 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 545 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 711 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,600 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,490 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Jai born?
The states with the most babies named Jai are California, Texas and Florida, with 65% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 24 | #945 | 0.9× |
| Texas | 11 | #1,598 | 0.7× |
| Florida | 10 | #1,224 | 0.8× |
| Pennsylvania | 8 | #955 | 0.4× |
| North Carolina | 6 | #1,198 | 0.4× |
| New Jersey | 5 | #1,096 | 0.9× |
| Massachusetts | 5 | #833 | 0.3× |
Where Jai is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Jai is most over-represented in Louisiana: since 1957 it was given 2.1 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Jai with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 209,571 babies since 1880, Jai is the second most given (3.1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 141 of their 1,067 babies (13%), again the second most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Jai
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Jai and names like it
- Compare Jai and JayBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sJai peaked in 2014.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Jai since 1910.
- Sanskrit namesWiktionary’s origin for Jai: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2014The year the most babies were named Jai.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Jai alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with JMost given first.