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Yakov

#1,286 in 2025Boys' name

Form of Jacob

Yakov has been given to 3,353 babies in the U.S. since 1953. In 2025 it ranked #1,286 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2024, with 172 recorded.

Babies named Yakov, 2025

1 in 21,700

Yakov over time, 1880–2025

Boys
05010015020018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Yakov: meaning, origin, and history

Form of Jacob

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Yakov means

Yakov is a form of Jacob.

Meaning behind the documented name family

Yakov 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, 3,353 boys were recorded with the name Yakov between 1953 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 172 in 2024; its best national rank was #1,195 in 2024.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #1,436 in 2020 to #1,286 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #1,474 in 2015 to #1,286 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 Yakov?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 21,700
153 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 11,200
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#1,286
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
15,020 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Yakov 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 5002%

Put another way: gather 15,020 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Yakov. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Yakovs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Yakov was born before 2012 — so the typical Yakov is around 13 today.

Median birth year
2012
About 13 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
32.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
76.8%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
3,353
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 32.0% of all recorded uses (1,074).

Is Yakov 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
−91
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
+150
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+188
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.34×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
89.0%
Peak was 2024 (172)
Years since peak
1
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
13.2% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,195
2024

Spellings of Yakov

Yakov is not the most common spelling — Jakob is, with 72.8% against Yakov's 7.6%.

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 Yakov is used

Across 1910–2025, Yakov was most concentrated in New York — about 1 in 5,000 boys, against 1 in 12,054 across all states with data. It was least common in California (1 in —).

020 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1New York1 in 5,000
  2. 2New Jersey1 in 14,286
  3. 3California1 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. Yakov has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Yakov around the world

Where Yakov 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
    1997–2025
    #1,897
    in 2025
  • France
    2014–2022
    #5,406
    in 2022
  • Canada
    1998–2024
    #2,550
    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 Yakov

People whose public names include Yakov, 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.

Yakov in other languages

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

JimJacoDiegoJacobJaimeJakabJakobJakovJakubJamesJamieYacobYakubJacoboJacopoSeamusThiagoYaacovGiacomoJacobusJacquesSantiagoJacóIacob

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

Yakov by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#1,286
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 150
Best rank ever
#1,195
2024
Peak year
2024
172 that year
First recorded
1953
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
3,353
Count in 2025
153

Names similar to Yakov

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

YaakovYakubYakshYakirYakobYakimYakoubJakovYakeemYackov

Names with a curve like Yakov

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

DovidIlanEliyahuNikolaNoamAryehTzviYasinAkivaAmmarKiranIsmail

Sibling names for Yakov

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 Yakov

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