Jim
- Pronunciation
- [Jim]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Variant Of Jacob Supplanter.
- Origin
- English
About the Name Jim
Jim is the familiar English short form of James, itself descended through Latin Jacobus from the Hebrew Ya'akov — the name of the biblical patriarch Jacob, traditionally associated with the meaning "supplanter." As an independent given name, Jim projects a compact, no-nonsense authority: the single syllable is direct where James is formal, workmanlike where Jimmy is playful, making it a distinct persona rather than merely an abbreviated one.
Several well-known bearers have carried the name across different spheres. Jim Thorpe (born 1888) was a Native American athlete widely considered one of the most versatile sportsmen of the twentieth century, excelling in track and field, American football, baseball, and basketball. Jim Morrison (born 1943) was an American singer, songwriter, and poet who fronted the rock band The Doors; songs associated with him include Light My Fire, Riders on the Storm, and The End. Jim Davis (born 1945) is the American cartoonist who created the comic strip Garfield, which became one of the most widely syndicated comics in the world. Jim Cramer was born James Joseph Cramer on February 10, 1955, in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania; he attended Springfield Township High School and went on to Harvard College. Jim Jarmusch was born James Robert Jarmusch on January 22, 1953, in Akron, Ohio, to a businessman father and a mother who had worked as a film and theater reviewer. Jim Rogers was born James Beeland Rogers Jr. on October 19, 1942, in Baltimore, Maryland, and raised in Demopolis, Alabama.
In US Social Security records, Jim appears in the top-1000 from 1880 with its peak of #45 in 1882, and exited the chart in 1963 with 4,237 births at #92, having accumulated more than 88,000 top-1000 births. Recorded variants include Jimbo and Jimmy.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Jim
US Popularity History (1880–1963)
Annual US births named Jim by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1959 with 5,687 boys named Jim (boy rank #70 that year).
Where it stands today: in 1963, ranked #92 for boys (4,237 US births). That's 22 places below its 1959 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jimmy | Variant Of Jacob Supplanter. | Male | English |
Famous People Named Jim
7 notable figures from history and culture who share the name Jim.
- Jim Cramer is a hedge fund manager turned television personality who co-founded TheStreet.
- Jim Davis — Cartoonist (1945)
- Jim Elliot was an evangelical Christian Missionary.
- Jim Jarmusch is an independent American film producer, director, screenwriter and actor.
- Jim Morrison — Rock Singer (1943)
- Jim Rogers is an American business magnate who chairs Rogers Holdings and Beeland Interests, Inc.
- Jim Thorpe — Football Player (1888)
Looking for names like Jim?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Jim to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Jim against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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