Job
Job was given to 49 boys in 2025, #2,659 among boys’ names; 3,399 Americans have been recorded with it since 1891 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 3,100 Americans named Job and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (91% of everyone recorded); the median is 24 years old and half are between 13 and 36.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Job by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Job mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Job is “a male given name from Hebrew.” Its etymology gives the senses “to be an enemy” (אָיַב) and “enemy” (אוֹיֵב).
From Latin Iob, from Ancient Greek Ἰώβ (Iṓb), from Biblical Hebrew אִיּוֹב (ʾiyyōḇ), related to אָיַב (ʾāyaḇ, “to be an enemy”) and אוֹיֵב (ʾōyēḇ, “enemy”).
/d͡ʒəʊb/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Job?
#2,659 among boys’ names, 2025
Job fell from #1,759 in 2015 to #2,659 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 45.4 to 28.7 per million.
89 babies in 2004, the peak
Job peaked in 2004, when 89 boys were given it, #1,508 among boys’ names. The 49 births of 2025 are 55% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 49 | #2,659 | 28.7 |
| 2024 | 61 | #2,327 | 35.4 |
| 2023 | 42 | #2,973 | 24.6 |
| 2022 | 67 | #2,177 | 38.4 |
| 2021 | 58 | #2,357 | 33.2 |
| 2020 | 52 | #2,483 | 30.1 |
| 2019 | 59 | #2,321 | 32.9 |
| 2018 | 61 | #2,245 | 33.6 |
| 2017 | 59 | #2,257 | 31.9 |
| 2016 | 81 | #1,852 | 42.7 |
Every recorded year (99)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 87 | #1,759 | 45.4 |
| 2014 | 82 | #1,821 | 42.7 |
| 2013 | 71 | #1,948 | 37.5 |
| 2012 | 66 | #2,080 | 34.8 |
| 2011 | 72 | #1,937 | 37.9 |
| 2010 | 65 | #2,081 | 33.9 |
| 2009 | 61 | #2,193 | 30.8 |
| 2008 | 71 | #1,993 | 34.8 |
| 2007 | 72 | #1,964 | 34.7 |
| 2006 | 77 | #1,799 | 37.5 |
| 2005 | 77 | #1,729 | 38.6 |
| 2004 | 89 | #1,508 | 44.8 |
| 2003 | 82 | #1,554 | 41.5 |
| 2002 | 77 | #1,589 | 39.7 |
| 2001 | 66 | #1,733 | 34.0 |
| 2000 | 87 | #1,420 | 44.3 |
| 1999 | 87 | #1,365 | 45.3 |
| 1998 | 76 | #1,466 | 39.8 |
| 1997 | 73 | #1,470 | 38.7 |
| 1996 | 71 | #1,448 | 37.5 |
| 1995 | 60 | #1,566 | 31.5 |
| 1994 | 47 | #1,835 | 24.3 |
| 1993 | 51 | #1,704 | 26.0 |
| 1992 | 47 | #1,786 | 23.5 |
| 1991 | 55 | #1,559 | 27.2 |
| 1990 | 47 | #1,710 | 22.9 |
| 1989 | 40 | #1,872 | 20.0 |
| 1988 | 30 | #2,106 | 15.7 |
| 1987 | 45 | #1,577 | 24.1 |
| 1986 | 32 | #1,894 | 17.4 |
| 1985 | 30 | #1,942 | 16.2 |
| 1984 | 27 | #2,005 | 15.0 |
| 1983 | 40 | #1,520 | 22.3 |
| 1982 | 33 | #1,752 | 18.2 |
| 1981 | 31 | #1,831 | 17.3 |
| 1980 | 32 | #1,786 | 17.9 |
| 1979 | 26 | #2,018 | 15.1 |
| 1978 | 39 | #1,492 | 23.8 |
| 1977 | 25 | #1,969 | 15.2 |
| 1976 | 36 | #1,518 | 22.9 |
| 1975 | 34 | #1,546 | 21.8 |
| 1974 | 40 | #1,360 | 25.4 |
| 1973 | 29 | #1,627 | 18.6 |
| 1972 | 26 | #1,745 | 16.0 |
| 1971 | 15 | #2,504 | 8.5 |
| 1970 | 8 | #3,661 | 4.3 |
| 1969 | 9 | #3,190 | 5.0 |
| 1968 | 17 | #1,989 | 9.8 |
| 1967 | 17 | #1,942 | 9.7 |
| 1966 | 5 | #4,229 | 2.8 |
| 1965 | 10 | #2,686 | 5.4 |
| 1964 | 12 | #2,479 | 6.0 |
| 1963 | 11 | #2,604 | 5.4 |
| 1962 | 13 | #2,311 | 6.3 |
| 1961 | 10 | #2,796 | 4.7 |
| 1960 | 10 | #2,767 | 4.7 |
| 1959 | 7 | #3,426 | 3.3 |
| 1958 | 5 | #4,222 | 2.4 |
| 1957 | 12 | #2,430 | 5.6 |
| 1956 | 12 | #2,430 | 5.7 |
| 1955 | 12 | #2,364 | 5.8 |
| 1954 | 8 | #3,060 | 3.9 |
| 1952 | 9 | #2,776 | 4.6 |
| 1951 | 8 | #2,946 | 4.2 |
| 1950 | 8 | #2,898 | 4.5 |
| 1949 | 7 | #3,148 | 3.9 |
| 1948 | 11 | #2,382 | 6.3 |
| 1947 | 6 | #3,541 | 3.3 |
| 1945 | 5 | #3,542 | 3.7 |
| 1943 | 9 | #2,650 | 6.3 |
| 1939 | 5 | #3,727 | 4.5 |
| 1936 | 7 | #3,022 | 6.7 |
| 1934 | 10 | #2,476 | 9.7 |
| 1932 | 7 | #3,225 | 6.7 |
| 1931 | 9 | #2,767 | 8.7 |
| 1930 | 11 | #2,525 | 10.0 |
| 1929 | 10 | #2,683 | 9.3 |
| 1926 | 6 | #3,948 | 5.4 |
| 1925 | 8 | #3,269 | 7.2 |
| 1924 | 8 | #3,375 | 7.1 |
| 1923 | 6 | #4,024 | 5.5 |
| 1920 | 8 | #3,351 | 7.5 |
| 1919 | 9 | #2,995 | 9.2 |
| 1918 | 6 | #3,934 | 5.9 |
| 1917 | 7 | #3,393 | 7.6 |
| 1916 | 8 | #3,053 | 9.0 |
| 1915 | 6 | #3,622 | 7.1 |
| 1914 | 6 | #3,085 | 9.2 |
| 1891 | 6 | #907 | 59.3 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Job a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Job has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 99 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Job: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Job, and how old are they?
3,100 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 91% of the 3,399 Americans ever recorded as Job. The median Job alive today is 24 years old; half are between 13 and 36.
The 2020 Census counted 3,667 people named Job (27 women and girls, 3,640 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,842 born in the U.S. The Census count is 29% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 11 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 110 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 329 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 654 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,180 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 823 |
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 Job born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 5 | #1,890 | 0.1× |
Where Job is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Job is most over-represented in Texas: since 1910 it was given 1.5 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 Job 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 2 names spelled alike, given to 4,399 babies since 1880, Job is the most given (77% of them). In 2025 it was given to 49 of their 109 babies (45%), the second most given that year.
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 Job
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 Job and names like it
- Compare Job and JoabBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sJob peaked in 2004.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Job since 1910.
- Hebrew namesWiktionary’s origin for Job: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2004The year the most babies were named Job.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Job alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with JMost given first.