Jalen
Jalen was given to 711 boys in 2025, #443 among boys’ names; 42,547 Americans have been recorded with it since 1976 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 41,700 Americans named Jalen and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 24 years old and half are between 18 and 27.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Jalen by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Jalen mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Jalen is “a male given name from a combination of James and Len.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Jalen?
#443 among boys’ names, 2025
Jalen rose from #590 in 2015 to #443 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.24 to 0.42 per 1,000.
3,680 babies in 2000, the peak
Jalen peaked in 2000, when 3,680 babies were given it (3,513 boys, #106 among boys’ names). The 711 births of 2025 are 19% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 711 | #443 | 0.42 |
| 2024 | 661 | #467 | 0.38 |
| 2023 | 726 | #429 | 0.42 |
| 2022 | 571 | #520 | 0.33 |
| 2021 | 568 | #517 | 0.32 |
| 2020 | 520 | #547 | 0.30 |
| 2019 | 539 | #531 | 0.30 |
| 2018 | 504 | #551 | 0.28 |
| 2017 | 451 | #599 | 0.24 |
| 2016 | 482 | #575 | 0.25 |
Every recorded year (41)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 468 | #590 | 0.24 |
| 2014 | 487 | #572 | 0.25 |
| 2013 | 544 | #501 | 0.29 |
| 2012 | 581 | #470 | 0.31 |
| 2011 | 707 | #401 | 0.37 |
| 2010 | 720 | #394 | 0.38 |
| 2009 | 850 | #361 | 0.43 |
| 2008 | 1,054 | #316 | 0.52 |
| 2007 | 1,282 | #268 | 0.62 |
| 2006 | 1,591 | #228 | 0.77 |
| 2005 | 1,708 | #212 | 0.86 |
| 2004 | 2,022 | #190 | 1.0 |
| 2003 | 2,620 | #155 | 1.3 |
| 2002 | 2,686 | #145 | 1.4 |
| 2001 | 3,121 | #127 | 1.6 |
| 2000 | 3,513 | #106 | 1.8 |
| 1999 | 2,037 | #172 | 1.1 |
| 1998 | 1,588 | #204 | 0.83 |
| 1997 | 1,012 | #277 | 0.54 |
| 1996 | 1,367 | #222 | 0.72 |
| 1995 | 1,396 | #211 | 0.73 |
| 1994 | 1,698 | #183 | 0.88 |
| 1993 | 1,392 | #216 | 0.71 |
| 1992 | 612 | #378 | 0.31 |
| 1991 | 15 | #3,887 | 0.01 |
| 1990 | 6 | #7,529 | under 0.01 |
| 1988 | 6 | #6,750 | under 0.01 |
| 1986 | 5 | #7,161 | under 0.01 |
| 1981 | 5 | #6,694 | under 0.01 |
| 1977 | 5 | #6,256 | under 0.01 |
| 1976 | 5 | #5,968 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Jalen a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 42,547 Americans recorded as Jalen, 4% are girls and 96% boys. In 2025 it went to 711 boys; SSA lists no girls with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Jalen: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Jalen, and how old are they?
41,700 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 42,547 Americans ever recorded as Jalen. The median Jalen alive today is 24 years old; half are between 18 and 27.
The 2020 Census counted 33,290 people named Jalen (1,599 women and girls, 31,691 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 38,359 born in the U.S. The Census count is 13% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 9 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 6,590 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 27,800 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 7,310 |
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 Jalen born?
The states with the most babies named Jalen are California, Texas and Florida, with 30% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 84 | #394 | 0.6× |
| Texas | 62 | #527 | 0.7× |
| Florida | 57 | #341 | 1.0× |
| New York | 56 | #323 | 0.8× |
| Pennsylvania | 51 | #241 | 0.7× |
| New Jersey | 33 | #274 | 0.8× |
| Georgia | 23 | #471 | 2.0× |
| Ohio | 20 | #525 | 0.9× |
| Virginia | 20 | #396 | 1.3× |
| Maryland | 19 | #290 | 1.4× |
Where Jalen is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Jalen is most over-represented in Mississippi: since 1976 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 Jalen 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 131,080 babies since 1880, Jalen is the second most given (32% of them). In 2025 it was given to 711 of their 2,062 babies (34%), 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 Jalen
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 Jalen and names like it
- Compare Jalen and JaylenBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sJalen peaked in 2000.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Jalen since 1910.
- The top names of 2000The year the most babies were named Jalen.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Jalen alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with JMost given first.