Yakov
Yakov was given to 153 boys in 2025, #1,286 among boys’ names; 3,353 Americans have been recorded with it since 1953 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 3,280 Americans named Yakov and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 14 years old and half are between 6 and 24.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Yakov by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Yakov?
#1,286 among boys’ names, 2025
Yakov rose from #1,474 in 2015 to #1,286 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 59.5 to 89.6 per million.
172 babies in 2024, the peak
Yakov peaked in 2024, when 172 boys were given it, #1,195 among boys’ names. The 153 births of 2025 are 89% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 153 | #1,286 | 89.6 |
| 2024 | 172 | #1,195 | 99.8 |
| 2023 | 123 | #1,472 | 71.9 |
| 2022 | 140 | #1,345 | 80.2 |
| 2021 | 118 | #1,513 | 67.4 |
| 2020 | 121 | #1,436 | 70.1 |
| 2019 | 114 | #1,506 | 63.5 |
| 2018 | 130 | #1,363 | 71.6 |
| 2017 | 113 | #1,498 | 61.0 |
| 2016 | 113 | #1,512 | 59.5 |
Every recorded year (61)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 114 | #1,474 | 59.5 |
| 2014 | 90 | #1,700 | 46.9 |
| 2013 | 102 | #1,556 | 53.9 |
| 2012 | 104 | #1,544 | 54.8 |
| 2011 | 108 | #1,503 | 56.9 |
| 2010 | 86 | #1,757 | 44.8 |
| 2009 | 114 | #1,470 | 57.5 |
| 2008 | 91 | #1,690 | 44.6 |
| 2007 | 91 | #1,680 | 43.8 |
| 2006 | 73 | #1,874 | 35.5 |
| 2005 | 74 | #1,786 | 37.0 |
| 2004 | 64 | #1,929 | 32.2 |
| 2003 | 61 | #1,931 | 30.9 |
| 2002 | 50 | #2,149 | 25.8 |
| 2001 | 57 | #1,930 | 29.3 |
| 2000 | 46 | #2,191 | 23.4 |
| 1999 | 39 | #2,342 | 20.3 |
| 1998 | 54 | #1,845 | 28.3 |
| 1997 | 45 | #2,019 | 23.9 |
| 1996 | 43 | #2,040 | 22.7 |
| 1995 | 35 | #2,291 | 18.4 |
| 1994 | 43 | #1,969 | 22.3 |
| 1993 | 33 | #2,339 | 16.8 |
| 1992 | 44 | #1,878 | 22.0 |
| 1991 | 37 | #2,044 | 18.3 |
| 1990 | 22 | #2,944 | 10.7 |
| 1989 | 25 | #2,607 | 12.5 |
| 1988 | 23 | #2,592 | 12.0 |
| 1987 | 25 | #2,328 | 13.4 |
| 1986 | 25 | #2,285 | 13.6 |
| 1985 | 24 | #2,290 | 13.0 |
| 1984 | 19 | #2,610 | 10.5 |
| 1983 | 13 | #3,405 | 7.3 |
| 1982 | 15 | #3,100 | 8.3 |
| 1981 | 18 | #2,677 | 10.0 |
| 1980 | 18 | #2,726 | 10.1 |
| 1979 | 13 | #3,349 | 7.6 |
| 1978 | 14 | #3,068 | 8.5 |
| 1977 | 13 | #3,196 | 7.9 |
| 1976 | 9 | #4,003 | 5.7 |
| 1975 | 5 | #6,317 | 3.2 |
| 1974 | 12 | #3,115 | 7.6 |
| 1973 | 11 | #3,217 | 7.1 |
| 1972 | 9 | #3,617 | 5.6 |
| 1970 | 9 | #3,514 | 4.8 |
| 1969 | 7 | #3,928 | 3.9 |
| 1963 | 6 | #4,042 | 3.0 |
| 1960 | 5 | #4,592 | 2.3 |
| 1959 | 5 | #4,563 | 2.3 |
| 1958 | 8 | #3,270 | 3.8 |
| 1953 | 5 | #4,336 | 2.5 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Yakov a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Yakov has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 61 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Yakov: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Yakov, and how old are they?
3,280 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 3,353 Americans ever recorded as Yakov. The median Yakov alive today is 14 years old; half are between 6 and 24.
The 2020 Census counted 4,358 people named Yakov (7 women and girls, 4,351 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,510 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.7 times 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 21 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 108 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 423 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,140 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,590 |
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 Yakov born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 126 | #152 | 12.4× |
| New Jersey | 20 | #409 | 3.4× |
Where Yakov is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Yakov is most over-represented in New York: since 1953 it was given 12.4 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 Yakov 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 3 names spelled alike, given to 9,471 babies since 1880, Yakov is the second most given (35% of them). In 2025 it was given to 153 of their 371 babies (41%), 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 Yakov
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 Yakov and names like it
- Compare Yakov and YaakovBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sYakov peaked in 2024.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Yakov since 1910.
- The top names of 2024The year the most babies were named Yakov.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Yakov alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with YMost given first.