Jakob

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Jacob in US United States, NL Netherlands, DK Denmark and 8 more, Jacobs in ZA South Africa, BE Belgium, IT Italy and 2 more, Yaakov in IL Israel, BR Brazil and Იაკობ in GE Georgia.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 8 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Jakob is also recorded as 6 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• English given name74K records spelled Jakob5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Netherlands, Canada, Australia

  Also written Ja-Kob, Jäkob, Jakób, Jaköb

• Croatian given name22K records spelled Jakob30 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Croatia, Poland, Czechia, United States

  Languages: Croatian, Polish, Czech

  Also written Јакоб, Якоб, Yakob, Yacob, Jakób

• Spanish given name12K records spelled Jakob9 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Brazil, Switzerland, Spain

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

  Also written Jākōb, Jakób, Jákob, Jakòb, Jàkob

• Finnish given name11K records spelled Jakob3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Finland, Estonia, Sweden, United States

  Languages: Finnish, Estonian

  Also written Jãkõb

• a separate given name5.7K records spelled Jakob4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, India, Switzerland, Sweden

  Also written Jákob, Jakōb, Jakób

• French given name5.7K records spelled Jakob5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, United States, Switzerland, Spain

  Languages: French, Catalan

  Also written Jãkob, Jàkob, Jâköb

70 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Jakob is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In English, German/Scandinavian: "the supplanter"; one who takes the place of another; biblical name

  as a name·Baby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…

• In German, from the Hebrew name Yaʿaqōb; here source of stock forms like billiger Jakob

  as a name·Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

• Biblical: Hebrew, ‘supplanter’. See bJacob and }James in main dictionary.

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

• In German, Jacob (Old Testament personality)

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Danish, Jacob (biblical character).

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

NO SSB — Navn (1880–present) — 81 years between 1945–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Anund Jacobb. 1008SEnot in their usual nameKing of Sweden from 1022 until 1050 (1008-1050)
• Jacob Bernoullib. 1655CHnot in their usual nameSwiss mathematician (1655-1705)
• Josef Ib. 1678ATnot in their usual nameEmperor from 1705 till his death in 1711
• Jakob Steinerb. 1796CHSwiss mathematician (1796-1863)
• Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdyb. 1809DEnot in their usual nameGerman composer, pianist, organist and conductor of Jewish descent (1809-1847)
• Paul Deussenb. 1845DEnot in their usual nameGerman Indologist and philosopher (1845–1919)
• Jack Steinbergerb. 1921DEnot in their usual nameGerman-American physicist, Nobel laureate (1921-2020)
• Jakob Kuhnb. 1943CHSwiss association football player and manager (1943-2019)
• Jaap Stamb. 1972NLnot in their usual nameDutch association football player and manager (born 1972)
• Jakob Asserson Ingebrigtsenb. 2000NONorwegian middle- and long-distance runner

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 819 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Jakob?

We estimate roughly 874 thousand people bear Jakob (counting its spellings and scripts) across 12 countries in our records.

In which country does Jakob have the most bearers?

We estimate about 805 thousand people bear Jakob in the United States, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled jacob.

How common is Jakob compared with other names?

In the United States, Jakob is the 195th most common given name of 3,122,706 given names recorded there.

Is Jakob a male or female name?

Jakob is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Jakob mean?

Recorded meaning: from Hebrew Yaʿaqov, traditionally 'heel-holder'