Name Generator

How popular is the name Jacob?

Births per year, rank history and how many Jacobs are alive today.

Jacob (male) is currently the 41st most popular boys' name in England and Wales, with 1,258 babies given the name in 2025. This spelling of the name peaked in 2012, when 5,286 babies were given the name, the 5th most popular that year. It has declined since 2012; the 2025 figure is roughly 24% of its peak. Numbers have been falling in recent years. At least 100,000 babies have been named Jacob in England and Wales since 1994. Figures before 1996 are estimates. Jacob is one spelling of a name also recorded as Jakob; the combined figures below cover every spelling. Common short forms of Jacob include Jake.

Across all spellings of the name, the Jacob you are most likely to meet is around 13 years old. Half of all Jacobs born in England and Wales are between 11 and 28, and there are at least 110,000 of them alive today. If you walk into a room of 100 males, there's roughly a 30% chance that at least one of them will be called Jacob.

How many babies are named Jacob each year?

Includes all spellings: Jacob, Jakob. Figures before 1996 are estimates.

Where does the Jacob spelling rank?

Where does the Jakob spelling rank?

Where this data comes from

Figures from 1996 onwards are the Office for National Statistics' annual baby-name registrations for England and Wales, which record every name given to three or more babies in a year. Figures before 1996 are estimates: the ONS published only top-100 rankings at ten-year intervals back to 1904, so counts for those years are modelled from the rankings, calibrated against Douglas Galbi's long-run research into English name frequencies, and shown with an uncertainty band. Estimates of living bearers combine these birth figures with national life tables and ONS mid-year population estimates.

One limit worth naming: these figures count names as registered at birth. Anyone who changes their name later in life - including trans people, and anyone who adopts a different name by deed poll or simply by use - is not reflected here. Birth registrations record where a name began, not the name a person lives with.