![]() Saint James the Great, one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus | |
Pronunciation | /dʒeɪmz/ |
---|---|
Gender | Male |
Language(s) | English |
Name day | June 30th |
Origin | |
Word/name | Hebrew, Latin |
Meaning | "He may/will/shall follow/heed/seize by the heel/watch/guard/protect”, "Supplanter/Assailant", "May God protect" [1] |
Other names | |
Related names | Jacob, Jakob, Jake, Jack, Jacques, Jim, Jimmy, Jamie, Jaime, Jemmy, Jay; language variants listed below |
James is an English language given name of Hebrew origin, most commonly used for males.
It is a modern descendant, through Old French James, of Vulgar Latin Iacomus (cf. Italian Giacomo, Portuguese Tiago, Spanish Iago, Santiago), a derivative version of Latin Iacobus, Latin form of the Hebrew name Jacob (original Hebrew: יַעֲקֹב).[2] The final -s in the English first names is typical of those borrowed from Old French, where it was the former masculine subject case (cf. Giles, Miles, Charles, etc.). James is a very popular name in English-speaking populations.
James is one of the most common male names in the English-speaking world. In the United States, James was one of the five most common given names for male babies for most of the 20th century. Its popularity peaked during the Baby Boom (Census records 1940–1960), when it was the most popular name for baby boys. Its popularity has declined considerably over the past 30 years, but it still remains one of the 20 most common names for boys.[3]
In Northern Ireland, the name has appeared among the 10 most popular for the last quarter of the 20th century and into the 21st.[4] In 2013, James was the eighth most popular name for boys in Australia.[5]
James is the second most common first name for living individuals in the United States, belonging to roughly 3.4 million people in the United States as of 2021, according to the Social Security Administration. [6]
In 2022, in the United States, the name James was given to 12,028 boys, ranking it as the fourth most popular name.[7]