How popular is the baby name Jacob in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Jacob.

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Popularity of the baby name Jacob


Posts that mention the name Jacob

Popular baby names in Manitoba (Canada), 2019

According to Manitoba’s Vital Statistics Agency, the most popular baby names in the province last year were Olivia and Liam.

Here are Manitoba’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2019:

Girl Names

  1. Olivia
  2. Emily
  3. Ava
  4. Amelia
  5. Hannah
  6. Charlotte
  7. Sophia
  8. Emma
  9. Abigail
  10. Avery

Boy Names

  1. Liam
  2. Noah
  3. Lucas
  4. William
  5. Mason
  6. Ethan
  7. James
  8. Oliver
  9. Benjamin
  10. Carter

In the girls’ top 10, Hannah, Emma, and Avery replaced Chloe, Isabella and Sophie.

In the boys’ top 10, James, Oliver and Carter replaced Logan, Jacob, and Alexander.

In 2018, the top two names were Olivia and Liam. (My 2018 post for Manitoba ranks Lucas/Luke first for boys because it was based upon provisional data.)

Sources: Annual Report – Manitoba Vital Statistics Agency, 2019-2020 VSA Annual Report (PDF)

Popular baby names in Northern Territory (Australia), 2019

According to the government of Northern Territory, Australia, the most popular baby names in NT in 2019 were Grace and Oliver.

Here are Northern Territory’s top 10+ girl names and top 10+ boy names of 2019:

Girl Names

  1. Grace, 15 baby girls
  2. Mia, 14 (tie)
  3. Olivia, 14 (tie)
  4. Charlotte, 13 (tie)
  5. Isla, 13 (tie)
  6. Aria, 12 (tie)
  7. Ruby, 12 (tie)
  8. Chloe, 11 (4-way tie)
  9. Harper, 11 (4-way tie)
  10. Isabella, 11 (4-way tie)
  11. Matilda, 11 (4-way tie)

Boy Names

  1. Oliver, 20 baby boys
  2. William, 18
  3. Michael, 15
  4. Jack, 13 (3-way tie)
  5. Liam, 13 (3-way tie)
  6. Lucas, 13 (3-way tie)
  7. Noah, 11 (tie)
  8. Thomas, 11 (tie)
  9. Daniel, 10 (5-way tie)
  10. Elijah, 10 (5-way tie)
  11. Jacob, 10 (5-way tie)
  12. Joshua, 10 (5-way tie)
  13. Logan, 10 (5-way tie)

Notably, Grace — the #1 girl name — wasn’t even in the top ten in 2018.

Source: Popular Baby Names – NT.gov.au

Popular baby names in England and Wales (UK), 2019

Flag of the United Kingdom
Flag of the United Kingdom

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the most popular baby names in England and Wales last year were, yet again, Olivia and Oliver.

Here are the top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2019:

Girl Names

  1. Olivia, 4,082 baby girls
  2. Amelia, 3,712
  3. Isla, 2,981
  4. Ava, 2,946
  5. Mia, 2,500
  6. Isabella, 2,398
  7. Sophia, 2,332
  8. Grace, 2,330
  9. Lily, 2,285
  10. Freya, 2,264

Boy Names

  1. Oliver, 4,932 baby boys
  2. George, 4,575
  3. Noah, 4,265
  4. Arthur, 4,211
  5. Harry, 3,823
  6. Leo, 3,637
  7. Muhammad, 3,604
  8. Jack, 3,381
  9. Charlie, 3,355
  10. Oscar, 3,334

In the girls’ top 10, Lily and Freya replaced Emily and Ella. The boys’ top ten includes the same ten names as in 2018.

In the girls’ top 100, Lara and Mabel replaced Aisha and Francesca. In the boys’ top 100, Alfred, Chester, Hudson, Ibrahim and Oakley replaced Alex, Dexter, Dominic, Kai, Sonny and Tobias.

The fastest risers within the top 100 were Hallie (on the girls’ list) and Tommy (on the boys’).

Several names that saw increased usage due to pop culture were…

  • The girl name Dua, now at an all-time high thanks to English pop singer Dua Lipa, whose parents were Kosovar refugees.*
  • The boy name Kylo, thanks to the Star Wars sequel trilogy. (Kylo debuted in 2015, the year the first film was released.)
  • The boy name Taron, inspired by actor Taron Egerton, who was featured in the 2019 Elton John biopic Rocketman.

Here are the top ten lists for England and Wales separately, if you’d like to compare the regions…

England’s top ten…Wales’s top ten…
Girl NamesOlivia, Amelia, Isla, Ava, Mia, Isabella, Grace, Sophia, Lily, EmilyOlivia, Amelia, Isla, Ava, Freya, Willow, Mia, Ella, Rosie, Elsie
Boy NamesOliver, George, Arthur, Noah, Harry, Muhammad, Leo, Jack, Oscar, CharlieOliver, Noah, Charlie, Jacob, Theo, George, Leo, Arthur, Oscar, Alfie

Finally, here are some of the rare baby names from the other end of the rankings. Each one was given to exactly 3 babies in England and Wales last year.

Rare Girl NamesRare Boy Names
Aiste, Avesta, Bella-Blue, Cosmina, Dolcieanna, Elliw, Floella, Gurveen, Harerta, Hessa, Iffah, Jainaba, Kalsoom, Lussy, Mallie, Nellie-Beau, Otterly, Primavera, Reevie, Reizel, Saffanah, Tuppence, Venba, Winter-Lily, Yidis, Zeemal, ZobiaAuburn, Boycie, Cybi, Dawsey, Eason, Folarin, Gedalya, Glyndwr, Hadrian, Hylton, Isaa, Johnjo, Kaniel, Lazo, Madani, Marmaduke, Now, Olgierd, Pijus, Rakai, Smit, Taqi, Veselin, Wilby, Wulfric, Yilmaz, Zarel

Cybi, pronounced “kubby,” is the (Welsh) name of a 6th-century Cornish saint.

*Kosovar refugees are also mentioned in the posts on Amerikan and Tonibler.

Sources: Baby names in England and Wales: 2019, Baby names for boys in England and Wales (dataset), Baby names for girls in England and Wales (dataset)

Image: Adapted from Flag of the United Kingdom (public domain)

Popular boy names in the United States, 2019

Flag of the United States
Flag of the United States

Yesterday we looked at some of the latest girl name data, so today let’s check in on the 2019 boy names…

Here are the most popular boy names overall:

  1. Liam, 20,502 baby boys
  2. Noah, 19,048
  3. Oliver, 13,891
  4. William, 13,542
  5. Elijah, 13,300
  6. James, 13,087
  7. Benjamin, 12,942
  8. Lucas, 12,412
  9. Mason, 11,408
  10. Ethan, 11,241

Ethan kicked Logan out of the top 10 last year. (Logan is now ranked 16th.)

The boy names that saw the largest increases in usage in terms of absolute numbers of babies were…

  1. Brooks, increased by 1,114 babies
  2. Miles, 860
  3. Legend, 832
  4. Luca, 797
  5. Theodore, 775
  6. Mateo, 757
  7. Leo, 702
  8. Maverick, 701
  9. Noah, 698
  10. Luka, 652

The boy names that saw the largest increases in usage in terms of relative numbers of babies were…

  1. Ermias, increased by 3360%
  2. Sekani, 1992%
  3. Amenadiel, 500%
  4. Kross, 481%
  5. Alexios, 429%
  6. Taz, 340%
  7. Ezran, 333%
  8. Andoni, 309%
  9. Kaleel, 300%
  10. Taysom, 295%

Some explanations…

  • Ermias was the legal first name of rapper Nipsey Hussle (who died on March 31, 2019).
  • Sekani was the name of a young character in the film The Hate U Give (2018).
  • Amenadiel is a character on the TV series Lucifer.
  • Ezran is the name of a character on the Netflix series The Dragon Prince. (Ezran debuted in the data in 2018, the year the show started airing.)
  • Taysom Hill is a professional football player with the New Orleans Saints.

Here are the boy names that debuted most impressively in the 2019 data:

  1. Armias, debuted with 54 baby boys
  2. Izhaan, 50
  3. Jsan, 33
  4. Jaiari, 29
  5. Ripp, 26
  6. Sakani, 21
  7. Jardani, 19
  8. Iskender, 17
  9. Kamiri, 17
  10. Siar, 14
  • Armias and Sakani are spelling variants of Ermias and Sekani (above).
  • Izhaan is a celebrity baby: Izhaan Mirza Malik was born in October of 2018 to Indian tennis player Sania Mirza and Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik.
  • Jardani could be from Jardani Jovonovich, the “real” name of popular movie character John Wick…?

The boy names that saw the largest decreases in usage in terms of absolute numbers of babies were…

  1. Logan, decreased by 1,911 babies
  2. Michael, -1,174
  3. Jacob, -1,159
  4. Dylan, -1,076
  5. Mason, -1,065
  6. William, -1,048
  7. Connor, -932
  8. David, -871
  9. Ryan, -837
  10. Joshua, -836

The boy names that saw the largest decreases in usage in terms of relative numbers of babies were Nomar and Gianlucas (tied at -73%), and the boy name that saw the steepest drop off the list was Stephano (from 21 babies in 2018 to fewer than 5 in 2019).

If you can explain any of these rises (or drops), please leave a comment!

Source: SSA

Image: Adapted from Flag of the United States (public domain)