James
- Pronunciation
- [James]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- English form of Jacob; several proposed older interpretations
- Origin
- Hebrew, via Latin
Meaning and history of James
James comes from Late Latin Iacomus, a form related to Iacobus and Hebrew Jacob. The biblical account links Jacob with holding a heel or supplanting; other etymological proposals connect the older name with divine protection. “Replace” is an inadequate standalone translation. James and Jacob share an older source, but their modern spelling-specific records are separate.
Name-history references: James · Jacob. Reviewed October 27, 2026.
By Marvin Tang. Popularity figures use an imported selection of SSA records; SSA does not supply name meanings or etymologies. Editorial references, where available, are listed with the name explanation. Sources and coverage.
Quick Facts About James
US Popularity History (1880–2025)
Annual imported US counts for James by recorded sex, from US Social Security Administration records. Highest count in the imported records: 1947 with 94,763 boys named James (boy rank #1 that year).
Latest imported observation: in 2025, ranked #6 for boys (11,945 imported records). That's 5 places below its 1947 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Coverage: imported US Social Security card-application records, not a complete birth census. Historical coverage is narrower, including top-100 selection before 2000; recent imports also use catalog and rank filters. Missing rows can reflect those filters or source privacy limits and must not be read as zero or fewer than five uses. Spellings and recorded sex are kept separate.
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Look up James across states
Compare this exact spelling in one year and recorded sex list. Missing state records remain unknown.
Observed State Ranks for James
Average boy-name rank across the same 2016–2025 window, limited to 51 jurisdictions with every year imported. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings. This is an ordinal comparison, not a per-capita rate. States with missing years are excluded. For James the lowest observed averages are in Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina.
Lowest observed average rank
| # | State | Avg rank | Imported count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mississippi | #2 | 1,695 |
| 2 | Alabama | #2 | 3,011 |
| 3 | South Carolina | #3 | 2,548 |
| 4 | District of Columbia | #4 | 622 |
| 5 | Tennessee | #4 | 3,891 |
| 6 | Virginia | #4 | 4,275 |
| 7 | Montana | #4 | 480 |
| 8 | Massachusetts | #4 | 3,446 |
| 9 | Maryland | #5 | 2,449 |
| 10 | North Carolina | #5 | 4,942 |
Highest observed average rank
| # | State | Avg rank | Imported count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | #20 | 12,415 |
| 2 | New Mexico | #19 | 558 |
| 3 | Vermont | #18 | 175 |
| 4 | West Virginia | #17 | 628 |
| 5 | Nevada | #17 | 901 |
| 6 | South Dakota | #16 | 328 |
| 7 | Hawaii | #16 | 326 |
| 8 | Arizona | #16 | 2,239 |
| 9 | Texas | #14 | 11,045 |
| 10 | Florida | #14 | 6,462 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. Only states with all 10 annual observations for this spelling and recorded sex are compared. Missing states are excluded, not assigned zero. Average rank measures position in state rankings, not a per-capita rate. Local import filters and SSA privacy limits can both create gaps. Coverage and limitations.
Related Forms in This Catalog
Open each form for its own meaning, language history, and exact-spelling usage records.
Famous People Named James
12 notable figures from history and culture who share the name James.
- James A. Michener was a Pulitzer Prize winning American novelist and short story writer.
- James Blunt — Pop Singer (1974)
- James Brown — Soul Singer (1933)
- James Buchanan — US President (1791)
- James Cagney — Movie Actor (1899)
- James Callaghan was a Labour Party Politician and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979.
- James Carville is a famous American political consultant and strategist who became famous for leading the successful presidential campaign of Bill Clinton.
- James Coburn — Movie Actor (1928)
- James Cook was a British explorer, captain and cartographer.
- James Dean — Movie Actor (1931)
- James Douglas was a British Colonial Governor of Vancouver Island and British Columbia.
- James Earl Jones — Movie Actor (1931)
Looking for names like James?
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 James to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for James against names with the largest imported counts for boys-name peers (top 8 with every year imported, 2016–2025). Names with missing annual observations are excluded from this comparison.
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