Jack

415,678 people in America carry this name — ranked #112 of 923.

A name being given more often than it was a generation ago.

Say it JAK

1 syllable · the capitals are the stressed part

Phonetic transcription

JH AE1 K — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.

  • People counted 415,678 2020 Census
  • Per 100,000 137.6 about 1 in 797 people

What Jack means and where it comes from

Hebrew in origin, reading literally as “grace of God”.

Origins are a matter of scholarly argument rather than record, and a name can be traced more than one way. We state one reading and say where it came from.

How often Jack has been given

715,026 babies were given this name since 1880. The busiest year was 1927, with 12,883 of them.

80 90 00 10 20s 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 00 10 20

Most people carrying it were born in the 1920s.

Counted from Social Security card applications, so it covers births registered in the United States and leaves out names given to fewer than five babies in a year.

Middle names that fit Jack

One syllable, so a longer middle name gives the whole a rhythm.

Better avoided

  • Jack Joseph — same opening
  • Jack Christopher — runs together
  • Jack Jose — same opening

Chosen by sound from the pronouncing dictionary, then ordered by how often the name is given. None of it is a rule — the ear decides.

A name from before the war

The year most children were called Jack was 1927. Names of that age tend to come back once their owners are grandparents.

Boys or girls: who is called Jack?

99.7% men
1,055 women

As recorded on census returns, not as anyone thinks the name ought to be used.

The states where Jack is most common

In Minnesota the name is given 1.8 times as often as it is across the country.

  • Minnesota ×1.8
  • Alaska ×1.7
  • New Hampshire ×1.7
  • Connecticut ×1.5
  • Massachusetts ×1.5

Measured against the state's own share of births since 1960, so a small state can lead a big one. Counted from Social Security card applications.

Who carries it today

  • White alone (non-Hispanic) — 87.1%
  • Black or African American alone (non-Hispanic) — 1.9%
  • Hispanic or Latino origin — 4.7%
  • Two or more races — 3.3%
  • Asian and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone — 2.4%
  • American Indian and Alaska Native alone — 0.5%

Categories are how people answered the census — a fact about the bearers, not a property of the name. Conclusions are ours, not the Census Bureau’s.

Names built the same way as Jack

Ends on the same sound

Same rhythm — 1 syllables, stress on the first

Matched on phonemes, not spelling, so the lists follow the ear rather than the page.

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Where this page gets its numbers

  • Counts, ranks and shares: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census tabulations of first and last names occurring 100 or more times. Percentages, bands and groupings are our own arithmetic — the conclusions are ours, not the Bureau’s.
  • Pronunciation, syllables and rhyme groups: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, Carnegie Mellon University. The plain-English respelling is ours.
  • Origins and the forms a name takes in other languages: Charlotte Yonge, History of Christian Names, 1884 — a public-domain work. Scholarship has moved on since, so read it as one reading of a name, not the last word.

Below a hundred people we publish no figure at all — the same threshold the Census Bureau applies to us. What each source covers
Other names of Hebrew origin