Jacob

What does the name Jacob mean?

Jacob is the Hebrew Yaʿaqov, the patriarch whose sons became the tribes of Israel. Genesis explains the name by baby Jacob holding his twin Esau's heel (Hebrew ʿaqev), and later by a pun on 'supplant'. Wiktionary analyses the form as a verb based on 'heel'. James, Diego, Santiago and Iago all come from the same name.

יַעֲקֹב (Biblical Hebrew, “Yaʿaqov”)עָקֵב (Biblical Hebrew, “heel”)

How sure is this? Probable. The biblical wordplay is clear; the short meaning gives only the biblical explanation, not a proven derivation.

See also: Hebrew names.

Nicknames for Jacob

The usual nicknames for Jacob are Jake and Coby. Some parents skip the long form: for every 100 boys named Jacob in the last five years, 11 were named Jake, against 14 twenty years earlier. Coby is also gaining on the full name.

Nicknames reviewed by our editors; counts are boys given the nickname as their legal first name. Nobody records how many Jacobs go by each one.

Jacob popularity since 1880

A few girls are given the name too: 2,305 since 1911.

How popular is Jacob, counting every spelling?

Jacob is the most common spelling of a name family that ranked #50 for boys in 2025 once every spelling is counted together, compared with #43 for Jacob on its own. Together these spellings went to 6,152 boys in 2025.

Spellings count together when they sound the same in American English and are used for the same sex; nicknames and forms that sound different (such as Theo and Theodore) are kept apart. How we group spellings.

How many kids will share the name Jacob?

6,152 of the 3,606,400 babies born in the US in 2025 were named Jacob (1.71 per 1,000 births). For a boy named Jacob born in 2025, the chance that another child with the same name is in a class of 20 children the same age is about 1 in 31. If every grade liked the name as much as the 2025 babies do, only about one elementary school in 1 (of 430 pupils) would have a child named Jacob.

Shares of all registered births (NCHS); classes assumed to be children born the same year. How we estimate this.

How old are people named Jacob?

About 925,100 people born in the US named Jacob are alive today, with a median age of 26; half are between 18 and 33. That makes Jacob mostly worn by children and young adults.

Babies given the name each year (SSA) times the share of that birth year still alive (SSA life tables). Counts people born in the US only. Method.

Jacob by state

How common Jacob was among boys born in each state in 2021–2025. It is notably more common than nationally in Wyoming (2.0×), New Jersey (1.9×), New York (1.9×), Rhode Island (1.9×), Connecticut (1.7×). It is least common, relative to the national rate, in Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin.

Names with a similar history

These names rose and fell in step with Jacob: their share of US boys followed the most similar curve since 1880. If you like Jacob, they share its era and feel.

• Garrett
• Christian
• Alexander
• Jordan
• Devin
• Tanner

Questions about the name Jacob