Jackson

239,893 people in America carry this name — ranked #236 of 923.

A name with a settled sense and a settled sound.

Say it JAK suhn

2 syllables · the capitals are the stressed part

Phonetic transcription

JH AE1 K S AH0 N — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.

  • People counted 239,893 2020 Census
  • Rank #236 Common

The meaning and origin of Jackson

Reads literally as “son of John”.

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.

Jackson name popularity by year

259,392 babies were given this name since 1880. The busiest year was 2013, with 12,616 of them.

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

Most people carrying it were born in the 2010s. It has been given more often of late.

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 Jackson

Two syllables sit with almost anything — the join matters more than the length.

Better avoided

  • Jackson John — same opening
  • Jackson James — same opening
  • Jackson Joseph — 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.

On the way up

Jackson is given more often now than it was a generation ago. Most names move the other way.

Is Jackson used for boys or for girls?

99.6% men
966 women

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

Full names people carry

The census counts first names and surnames separately and never together, so these are estimates: how often the two halves would meet if they paired at random. They do not — names cluster by community — so read them as an order of magnitude, not a headcount.

Where the name Jackson is most common in the US

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

  • New Hampshire ×1.8
  • Utah ×1.7
  • Tennessee ×1.6
  • Alabama ×1.6
  • Idaho ×1.6

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) — 82.2%
  • Black or African American alone (non-Hispanic) — 3.3%
  • Hispanic or Latino origin — 6.6%
  • Two or more races — 5.6%
  • Asian and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone — 1.8%
  • American Indian and Alaska Native alone — 0.6%

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 with the same rhythm as Jackson

Nothing else in the file ends on the same sound — a rare thing, and useful if you want a first name nobody will echo.

Same rhythm — 2 syllables, stress on the first

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

Try it How Rare Is It?

Where this name sits between household and almost unheard of.

Common

  • People counted239,893
  • Rank#236
  • Roughly1 in 1,382 people

Open the full entry

Open How Rare Is It? on its own page

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