Boy Names That Start With J
Boys' names beginning with J, ranked by how many babies actually got them — not by editorial preference — plus which ones are climbing and how the letter itself has moved.
- Share of boys, 2025
- 10.5%
- vs 17.4% in 2000
- Names in use
- 1,134
- 4,339 recorded since 1880
- Letter peaked
- 1981
- at 21.7% of names
- Rank among 26 letters
- #1
- by 2025 share
How J has fared since 1880
Share of all listed U.S. births given a name starting with J, year by year. Plotted as a share rather than a count — raw counts track how many babies were born, so every letter would appear to peak in 1957.
| Save name | Name & meaning | History 1926–2025, yearly counts; individually scaled | Babies 2025 · rank | 5-year rank movement | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11,945#6 | Steady | 1947 | |||
| 8,027#23 | Up 4 rank positions in five years | 1947 | |||
| 7,303#29 | Down 3 rank positions in five years | 1956 | |||
| 4,773#66 | Down 13 rank positions in five years | 1989 | |||
| 2,224#165 | Down 46 rank positions in five years | 1977 | |||
| 6,152#43 | Down 28 rank positions in five years | 1998 | |||
| 544#552 | Down 166 rank positions in five years | 1962 | |||
| 3,822#89 | Down 19 rank positions in five years | 1988 | |||
| 1,512#233 | Down 67 rank positions in five years | 1988 | |||
| 8,748#15 | Up 6 rank positions in five years | 1927 | |||
| 3,678#95 | Down 1 rank positions in five years | 2002 | |||
| 1,152#292 | Down 60 rank positions in five years | 1977 | |||
| 2,002#184 | Up 19 rank positions in five years | 1981 | |||
| 2,732#131 | Down 49 rank positions in five years | 1990 | |||
| 2,318#159 | Down 14 rank positions in five years | 2005 | |||
| 682#458 | Down 70 rank positions in five years | 1947 | |||
| 6,582#36 | Down 19 rank positions in five years | 2013 | |||
| 1,633#219 | Down 12 rank positions in five years | 1985 | |||
| 7,603#25 | Up 9 rank positions in five years | 2017 | |||
| 4,653#70 | Down 33 rank positions in five years | 2009 | |||
| 2,078#173 | Down 4 rank positions in five years | 2004 | |||
| 3,840#88 | Down 14 rank positions in five years | 2010 | |||
| 804#396 | Down 28 rank positions in five years | 1998 | |||
| 809#392 | Down 12 rank positions in five years | 1960 | |||
| 5,509#54 | Down 5 rank positions in five years | 2017 | |||
| 1,069#323 | Down 47 rank positions in five years | 2006 | |||
| 682#457 | Down 137 rank positions in five years | 2004 | |||
| 3,073#115 | Down 67 rank positions in five years | 2016 | |||
| 1,252#274 | Down 24 rank positions in five years | 2001 | |||
| 594#508 | Down 90 rank positions in five years | 1990 | |||
| 3,083#114 | Down 18 rank positions in five years | 2013 | |||
| 2,828#128 | Steady | 2008 | |||
| 759#424 | Down 89 rank positions in five years | 1918 | |||
| 768#421 | Down 131 rank positions in five years | 2007 | |||
| 2,365#156 | Down 71 rank positions in five years | 2015 | |||
| 2,804#129 | Up 9 rank positions in five years | 2023 | |||
| 2,609#137 | Down 58 rank positions in five years | 2019 | |||
| 1,026#330 | Down 55 rank positions in five years | 2007 | |||
| 2,384#155 | Down 1 rank positions in five years | 2015 | |||
| 2,199#167 | Down 17 rank positions in five years | 2015 | |||
| 907#361 | Down 42 rank positions in five years | 2009 | |||
| 711#443 | Up 104 rank positions in five years | 2000 | |||
| 925#355 | Down 48 rank positions in five years | 2008 | |||
| 2,050#178 | Up 6 rank positions in five years | 2021 | |||
| 2,167#169 | Up 109 rank positions in five years | 2024 | |||
| 961#342 | Down 96 rank positions in five years | 2015 | |||
| 1,207#282 | Up 20 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 607#498 | Up 34 rank positions in five years | 2022 | |||
| 1,780#198 | Up 381 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 719#439 | Up 1,714 rank positions in five years | 2025 |
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J names climbing fastest
Biggest J names of all time
By total applications since 1880 — a different list from the one above, because it counts every generation, not just this one.
Every other letter
Sources & methodology
Rankings and counts come from official birth card-application data, 1880–2025. Counts are card applications rather than births, and any name given to fewer than 5 babies of one sex in a year is not published — so “—” means genuinely uncommon, never invalid. The “climbing fastest” row ranks by five-year rank movement as a ratio, and a name must be inside the top 1,000 with at least 200 applications in 2025 to qualify — a looser gate than the site-wide trending list uses, because inside a single letter the stricter one leaves some letters empty. Letter shares are measured over listed names only, and the 25-year comparison is a generation rather than five years because letter fashion moves far more slowly than any one name.