Humanverse

Jakeb vs Jakobe

American parents have registered 4,883 Jakobes since 1880, against 1,170 Jakebs. Jakobe is still ahead, with 122 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Jakeb against Jakobe, 1880 to 2025 0 80 160 240 320 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Jakeb Jakobe

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 44 years in which either name was published, Jakobe for 28 years and Jakeb for 16 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Jakeb Jakobe
Total US births 1,1704,883
Most in one year 74273
Babies in 2025 under 5122
Estimated living today 1,1004,800
Median age today 2513
Peak year 19992020
Best rank 1,517th boys833rd boys
Rank in 2025 unranked1,459th
First recorded 19821996
Girls / boys 0 / 1,1700 / 4,883

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Jakebs alive today are over 25; half the Jakobes are over 13. That is 12 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Jakeb and Jakobe.