Jefferson
- Pronunciation
- [Je-ffer-son]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Son Of Geoffrey
- Origin
- English
About the Name Jefferson
Jefferson is an English surname meaning "son of Geoffrey," Geoffrey itself being a Germanic name associated with peace. As a given name it carries strong patriotic and historical resonance in the United States through its long use as a family name, and it belongs to the distinguished tradition of surname-names that lend a child an air of dignity, weight, and substance.
For American boys, Jefferson entered the US Social Security top-1000 in 2000 and has appeared every year since, accumulating 8,816 births over that period. It reached its peak in 2009 at rank #589 and has remained a steady presence, recorded at #760 in 2022, #762 in 2023, and #711 in 2024. That long, even run — particularly strong within Hispanic American communities — marks it as a name with enduring, cross-cultural appeal that shows no sign of fading.
The name's charm lies in its blend of formality and warmth: a stately, three-syllable surname that still feels approachable, with a built-in casual nickname for daily use. The recorded short form is Jeff, giving the dignified Jefferson an easy, everyday alternative that balances its more formal, distinguished character. Strong, historic, and quietly patriotic, Jefferson offers a son a name with genuine American gravity, balancing its weighty, surname dignity with the friendly ease of its short form.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Jefferson
US Popularity History (2000–2025)
Annual US births named Jefferson by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2009 with 444 boys named Jefferson (boy rank #589 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #831 for boys (298 US births). That's 242 places below its 2009 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 Jefferson 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 Jefferson the strongest states are District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | District of Columbia | #196 | 19 |
| 2 | Maryland | #270 | 225 |
| 3 | Virginia | #421 | 176 |
| 4 | New Jersey | #463 | 155 |
| 5 | Connecticut | #465 | 17 |
| 6 | Massachusetts | #475 | 101 |
| 7 | New York | #553 | 277 |
| 8 | Florida | #590 | 249 |
| 9 | Georgia | #615 | 140 |
| 10 | Kentucky | #619 | 18 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ohio | #881 | 46 |
| 2 | Washington | #876 | 26 |
| 3 | Pennsylvania | #846 | 66 |
| 4 | Tennessee | #832 | 68 |
| 5 | Indiana | #806 | 57 |
| 6 | California | #744 | 327 |
| 7 | Utah | #714 | 15 |
| 8 | North Carolina | #709 | 108 |
| 9 | Alabama | #691 | 38 |
| 10 | Texas | #664 | 374 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Jefferson in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jeff | Peaceful. Variant Of Jeffrey. | Male | English |
Looking for names like Jefferson?
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 Jefferson to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Jefferson 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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