Jakob
Jakob was given to 135 boys in 2025, #1,372 among boys’ names; 31,959 Americans have been recorded with it since 1957 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 31,300 Americans named Jakob and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 23 years old and half are between 17 and 27.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Jakob by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Jakob mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Jakob is “a male given name, equivalent to English Jacob.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Jakob?
#1,372 among boys’ names, 2025
Jakob fell from #525 in 2015 to #1,372 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 0.29 to 0.08 per 1,000.
2,192 babies in 2001, the peak
Jakob peaked in 2001, when 2,192 boys were given it, #172 among boys’ names. The 135 births of 2025 are 6% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 135 | #1,372 | 0.08 |
| 2024 | 191 | #1,121 | 0.11 |
| 2023 | 189 | #1,119 | 0.11 |
| 2022 | 227 | #991 | 0.13 |
| 2021 | 281 | #846 | 0.16 |
| 2020 | 256 | #884 | 0.15 |
| 2019 | 312 | #759 | 0.17 |
| 2018 | 344 | #703 | 0.19 |
| 2017 | 404 | #640 | 0.22 |
| 2016 | 476 | #581 | 0.25 |
Every recorded year (66)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 548 | #525 | 0.29 |
| 2014 | 645 | #458 | 0.34 |
| 2013 | 711 | #416 | 0.38 |
| 2012 | 742 | #395 | 0.39 |
| 2011 | 910 | #334 | 0.48 |
| 2010 | 1,097 | #298 | 0.57 |
| 2009 | 989 | #324 | 0.50 |
| 2008 | 1,083 | #308 | 0.53 |
| 2007 | 1,108 | #303 | 0.53 |
| 2006 | 1,158 | #293 | 0.56 |
| 2005 | 1,215 | #275 | 0.61 |
| 2004 | 1,416 | #235 | 0.71 |
| 2003 | 1,607 | #218 | 0.81 |
| 2002 | 1,836 | #203 | 0.95 |
| 2001 | 2,192 | #172 | 1.1 |
| 2000 | 2,161 | #173 | 1.1 |
| 1999 | 1,693 | #200 | 0.88 |
| 1998 | 1,784 | #191 | 0.93 |
| 1997 | 1,387 | #220 | 0.74 |
| 1996 | 611 | #382 | 0.32 |
| 1995 | 561 | #407 | 0.29 |
| 1994 | 530 | #431 | 0.27 |
| 1993 | 487 | #449 | 0.25 |
| 1992 | 436 | #482 | 0.22 |
| 1991 | 368 | #522 | 0.18 |
| 1990 | 306 | #577 | 0.15 |
| 1989 | 249 | #632 | 0.12 |
| 1988 | 179 | #699 | 0.09 |
| 1987 | 148 | #751 | 0.08 |
| 1986 | 146 | #752 | 0.08 |
| 1985 | 83 | #1,001 | 0.04 |
| 1984 | 84 | #970 | 0.05 |
| 1983 | 89 | #938 | 0.05 |
| 1982 | 78 | #1,029 | 0.04 |
| 1981 | 80 | #1,016 | 0.04 |
| 1980 | 78 | #1,028 | 0.04 |
| 1979 | 62 | #1,143 | 0.04 |
| 1978 | 46 | #1,359 | 0.03 |
| 1977 | 49 | #1,275 | 0.03 |
| 1976 | 27 | #1,849 | 0.02 |
| 1975 | 32 | #1,604 | 0.02 |
| 1974 | 27 | #1,764 | 0.02 |
| 1973 | 11 | #3,103 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 17 | #2,277 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 11 | #3,044 | 0.01 |
| 1970 | 6 | #4,464 | under 0.01 |
| 1968 | 6 | #3,899 | under 0.01 |
| 1967 | 9 | #2,857 | 0.01 |
| 1966 | 5 | #4,210 | under 0.01 |
| 1964 | 6 | #3,801 | under 0.01 |
| 1963 | 5 | #4,309 | under 0.01 |
| 1962 | 6 | #3,820 | under 0.01 |
| 1961 | 5 | #4,332 | under 0.01 |
| 1959 | 6 | #3,775 | under 0.01 |
| 1958 | 6 | #3,712 | under 0.01 |
| 1957 | 7 | #3,389 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Jakob a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Jakob has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 66 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Jakob: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Jakob, and how old are they?
31,300 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 31,959 Americans ever recorded as Jakob. The median Jakob alive today is 23 years old; half are between 17 and 27.
The 2020 Census counted 27,371 people named Jakob (54 women and girls, 27,317 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 30,288 born in the U.S. The Census count is 10% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 31 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 351 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 4,250 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 22,000 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 4,680 |
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 Jakob born?
The states with the most babies named Jakob are California, Texas and Florida, with 58% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 17 | #1,173 | 0.9× |
| Texas | 9 | #1,817 | 0.8× |
| Florida | 9 | #1,295 | 0.8× |
| New York | 8 | #1,350 | 0.7× |
| Pennsylvania | 7 | #1,041 | 1.0× |
| Colorado | 5 | #900 | 1.2× |
| Arkansas | 5 | #593 | 0.8× |
Where Jakob is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Jakob is most over-represented in Washington: since 1957 it was given 1.4 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 Jakob 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 1,033,240 babies since 1880, Jakob is the second most given (3.1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 135 of their 6,409 babies (2.1%), 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 Jakob
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 Jakob and names like it
- Compare Jakob and JacobBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sJakob peaked in 2001.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Jakob since 1910.
- The top names of 2001The year the most babies were named Jakob.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Jakob alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with JMost given first.