Jim

99,345 people in America carry this name — ranked #553 of 923.

A name with a settled sense and a settled sound.

Say it JIHM

1 syllable · the capitals are the stressed part

Phonetic transcription

JH IH1 M — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.

  • People counted 99,345 2020 Census
  • Per 100,000 32.9 about 1 in 3,336 people
  • As a surname 3,499 ranked #8,976 the other way round

The meaning and origin of Jim

Hebrew in origin, reading literally as “supplanter”.

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.

Jim through the years

153,775 babies were given this name since 1880. The busiest year was 1959, with 5,695 of them.

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

Most people carrying it were born in the 1940s. It has been given less 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.

What goes well after Jim

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

Better avoided

  • Jim Michael — runs together
  • Jim Joseph — same opening
  • Jim Matthew — runs together

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.

Going quiet

Jim has more than halved in three decades. The people carrying it belong mostly to the Baby Boomers.

Is Jim a boy's or a girl's name?

99.6% men
415 women

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

Where in America Jim is thickest on the ground

In Wyoming the name is given 2.9 times as often as it is across the country.

  • Wyoming ×2.9
  • Montana ×2.9
  • Oregon ×2.1
  • Iowa ×2.1
  • South Dakota ×2.0

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.

The most common full names

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.

Names about as common

The nearest entries above and below by number of people.

Names built the same way as Jim

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.

The same name elsewhere

  • Kub Lus.|Pol
  • Lapo Italian
  • Kuba Polish
  • Jogg Swiss
  • Jock Swiss
  • Jeka Lett
  • Jako Ill
  • Jaka Slov
  • Jaga English
  • Jaak Esth
  • Jaap Dutch
  • Iago Spanish
  • Como Italian
  • Bopp Swiss

Forms of one name traced to the same root. Spellings are as the glossary printed them, so some look older than the versions in use today.

Try it Adult Height

Open Adult Height 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
Other names of Hebrew origin