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Yaakov

#1,025 in 2025Boys' name

Form of Jacob

Yaakov has been given to 5,991 babies in the U.S. since 1948. In 2025 it ranked #1,025 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2021, with 237 recorded.

Babies named Yaakov, 2025

1 in 15,200

Yaakov over time, 1880–2025

Boys
010020030018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Yaakov: meaning, origin, and history

Form of Jacob

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Yaakov means

Yaakov is a form of Jacob.

Meaning behind the documented name family

Yaakov is a form of Jacob. Jacob has more than one origin or interpretation.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Jacob.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 5,991 boys were recorded with the name Yaakov between 1948 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 237 in 2021; its best national rank was #853 in 1986.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #1,105 in 2020 to #1,025 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #996 in 2015 to #1,025 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

How common is Yaakov?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 15,200
218 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 7,830
0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#1,025
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
10,542 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Yaakov sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 5003%

Put another way: gather 10,542 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Yaakov. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Yaakovs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Yaakov was born before 2010 — so the typical Yaakov is around 15 today.

Median birth year
2010
About 15 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
28.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
68.7%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
5,985
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 28.8% of all recorded uses (1,728).

Is Yaakov rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−50
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
+80
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
−29
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
1.05×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
92.0%
Peak was 2021 (237)
Years since peak
4
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
13.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#853
1986

Spellings of Yaakov

Yaakov is the most-used spelling, taking 64.1% of the 9,344 babies given a near-identical spelling.

  • Yaakov64.1%5,991
  • Yakov35.9%3,353

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Yaakov is used

Across 2016–2025, Yaakov was most concentrated in New Jersey — about 1 in 439 boys, against 1 in 4,055 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

0228 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1New Jersey1 in 439
  2. 2New York1 in 1,282
  3. 3Maryland1 in 4,167
  4. 4California1 in 33,333
  5. 5Florida1 in 33,333
  6. 6Illinois1 in 33,333
  7. 7Pennsylvania1 in 33,333
  8. 8Texas1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings.

Yaakov around the world

Where Yaakov ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2025
    #5,137
    in 2025
  • France
    1992–2024
    #5,690
    in 2024
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #1,698
    in 2024

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Statistics Canada. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Yaakov

People whose public names include Yaakov, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Yaakov in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Yaakov. Linked forms have their own page here.

YacobYaacov

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Yaakov by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#1,025
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 80
Best rank ever
#853
1986
Peak year
2021
237 that year
First recorded
1948
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
5,991
Count in 2025
218

Names similar to Yaakov

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

YakovYaasirYaacovYaalanYaaseenYaamirJakovYaaqoubYackov

Names with a curve like Yaakov

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Yaakov, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

ShmuelMikaelShlomoYitzchokYisroelAvrahamMordechaiMustafaShimonYehudaKarimAmar

Sibling names for Yaakov

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Yaakov

Top names of 2021, Yaakov's peak yearThe 2020s in fullOther names that peaked in 1986Boys' names starting with Y