James
Comes from the Latin Iacomus, a late variant of Iacobus, which renders the Hebrew Ya'aqov. Jacob and James are therefore the same name by different routes.
James in 2025
James was given to 12,004 babies in the United States in 2025, making it the 11th most popular name of the year. That is roughly one in every 276 babies born.
The history of James
James has been the single most popular name in the country 11 times, and reached its highest point in 1947, when 95,024 babies were given the name.
Across the 146 years of records since 1880, 5,274,520 babies have been named James. Half of them were born before 1953, which places the name's centre of gravity with the Baby Boomers.
James by decade
| Decade | Babies named James | Best rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 54,322 | 4 |
| 1890s | 51,005 | 5 |
| 1900s | 62,527 | 4 |
| 1910s | 276,392 | 4 |
| 1920s | 518,511 | 3 |
| 1930s | 550,385 | 1 |
| 1940s | 798,341 | 1 |
| 1950s | 846,311 | 1 |
| 1960s | 687,738 | 3 |
| 1970s | 447,543 | 2 |
| 1980s | 359,097 | 6 |
| 1990s | 245,648 | 9 |
| 2000s | 163,609 | 20 |
| 2010s | 140,143 | 9 |
| 2020s | 72,948 | 9 |
Where James is heading
James has fallen 19% over the past decade, from 14,904 babies in 2015 to 12,004 in 2025.
Names like James
Names that rose and fell at the same time as James.