Popularity of the name Jacob, 1880–2025

Jacob was at its most popular in 1998, when 36,031 boys were given the name: about 1 in 53 boys born in the U.S. that year, ranking #2. In 2025, 6,152 boys were named Jacob, ranking #43. In all, Social Security counts 988,227 boys named Jacob since 1880. Social Security’s records also list 2,305 girls named Jacob.

Peak year

1998

Rank in 1998

#2

Babies in 1998

36,031

Rank in 2025

#43

Total since 1880

988,227

Where it stands now

In the past decade the name slipped from #4 in 2015 to #43 in 2025: 16,005 boys got it in 2015, and 6,152 in 2025.

Decade by decade

Its best decade was the 2000s, when 274,077 boys were named Jacob, #1 for the decade. It ranked #49 in the 1880s and #30 in the 2020s so far.

Every 20 years in the records: 404 in 1880 (#39), 233 in 1900 (#101), 1,050 in 1920 (#143), 514 in 1940 (#234), 493 in 1960 (#351), 8,520 in 1980 (#43), 34,492 in 2000 (#1) and 9,309 in 2020 (#15).

Highs and lows

The most boys given the name in a single year was 36,031, in 1998. Its best rank in any year was #1, first reached in 1999.

Every year

The table lists every year from 1880 to 2025 in which Social Security recorded at least 5 boys named Jacob, with the name’s rank that year.

How these numbers are counted

Social Security publishes, for every year since 1880, how many babies of each sex were given each name, counting any name given to at least 5. A name’s rank is its place that year among names for the same sex, by number of babies. Names with the same count share a rank here, while Social Security’s own lists break ties alphabetically, so a rank can differ from theirs by a place or two. A name’s share is the number of babies given it divided by all babies of that sex in the data that year, and its peak is the year that share was highest. Shares rather than counts set the peak, because far more babies were born in some years than others: counting babies alone would pull nearly every name’s peak toward the 1946–1964 baby boom.

Source: the U.S. Social Security Administration’s national baby name data, from Social Security card applications for babies born in the U.S. A name is left out of a year when fewer than 5 babies of one sex got it, and counts before about 1937 are incomplete, because many people born then never applied for a card. See how Baby Boom builds its data. Figures may contain errors.