Jacob
Hebrew Ya'aqov, explained in Genesis through a word for heel and taken to mean he supplants. Jacob wrestles the angel and fathers the twelve tribes.
Jacob in 2025
Jacob was given to 6,152 babies in the United States in 2025, making it the 73rd most popular name of the year. That is roughly one in every 539 babies born.
The history of Jacob
Jacob has been the single most popular name in the country 10 times, and reached its highest point in 1998, when 36,091 babies were given the name.
Across the 146 years of records since 1880, 990,532 babies have been named Jacob. Half of them were born before 1999, which places the name's centre of gravity with Generation Z.
Jacob by decade
| Decade | Babies named Jacob | Best rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 3,566 | 102 |
| 1890s | 2,551 | 198 |
| 1900s | 2,191 | 283 |
| 1910s | 8,699 | 262 |
| 1920s | 9,067 | 335 |
| 1930s | 5,281 | 459 |
| 1940s | 4,853 | 513 |
| 1950s | 5,405 | 628 |
| 1960s | 5,080 | 649 |
| 1970s | 36,557 | 80 |
| 1980s | 124,948 | 38 |
| 1990s | 299,007 | 1 |
| 2000s | 274,600 | 1 |
| 2010s | 163,507 | 2 |
| 2020s | 45,220 | 25 |
Where Jacob is heading
Jacob has fallen 62% over the past decade, from 16,028 babies in 2015 to 6,152 in 2025.
Names like Jacob
Names that rose and fell at the same time as Jacob.