Jasper
- Pronunciation
- [Jas-per]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Variant Of Caspar Or Gaspar Keeper Of The Treasure.
- Origin
- Arabic
About the Name Jasper
Jasper descends through medieval European naming traditions from the Persian Kaspar meaning "treasurer" or "keeper of the treasure." The name's most enduring cultural anchor is one of the Three Wise Men (Magi) of Christian tradition who, according to medieval European legend, brought gifts to the infant Jesus. The Magi are not named in canonical Gospel accounts, but medieval European tradition identified them as Caspar (or Jasper), Melchior, and Balthazar — each from a different region of the East, each presenting a different gift. The Caspar/Jasper figure was traditionally said to have presented frankincense.
The name has also been associated with the gemstone jasper — a variety of opaque colored quartz used since antiquity for jewelry, cylinder seals, and decorative objects. The Hebrew Bible mentions jasper (yashpheh) as one of the stones of the high priest's breastplate. The dual meaning — biblical wise-man name and gemstone — gives Jasper a layered tonal register.
The name has been continuously used in English-speaking countries since the medieval period. Notable bearers include American painter Jasper Johns (born 1930, the iconic post-Abstract Expressionist whose flag, target, and number paintings are foundational works of mid-20th-century American art) and the fictional Jasper Cullen of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series. The contemporary American Jasper surge is part of the broader vintage-revival wave alongside Theodore and Henry. The name climbed from outside the US top 500 in 2000 to the US top 100 boys' rank by 2010 and the top 75 by 2020. The appeal is its layered medieval-Persian register combined with two firm syllables and a distinctive J-opening. Common nicknames Jas, Jaz, and the rare Jaspy each carry distinct registers; international forms include Caspar (German/Dutch original), Casper (Scandinavian), Gaspar (Spanish/Portuguese), and the rare Gasparino (Italian).
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Jasper
US Popularity History (2000–2025)
Annual US births named Jasper by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2023 with 2,942 boys named Jasper (boy rank #122 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #129 for boys (2,804 US births). That's 7 places below its 2023 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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Where in the US Is Jasper Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Jasper the strongest states are Arkansas, Montana, Wyoming.
Strongest boys-name states
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Jersey | #324 | 238 |
| 2 | Connecticut | #249 | 128 |
| 3 | Maryland | #239 | 238 |
| 4 | Illinois | #205 | 594 |
| 5 | Texas | #201 | 1,885 |
| 6 | Massachusetts | #192 | 318 |
| 7 | Florida | #186 | 1,087 |
| 8 | Pennsylvania | #182 | 670 |
| 9 | Delaware | #182 | 19 |
| 10 | Virginia | #181 | 483 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Jasper in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jesper | Jasperstone | Male | French |
Looking for names like Jasper?
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 Jasper to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Jasper 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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