Jeffrey

given name · English · Latin script

Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

Jeffrey is a given name, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country, where it is the 41st most common given name. It appears chiefly in English and Spanish, written in the Latin script. Recorded meaning: From medieval Geffrey, from Old French Jefroi/Jeufroi; perhaps a form of Godfrey, or a distinct name with Germanic gala 'sing' or gawi 'region'.

rarermore common
  • CACanada1 in 422◐
  • IEIreland1 in 431
  • GBUnited Kingdom1 in 439

carrying the name, one hue, darker where it is more common. Hover a country for its figure.

≈740K ●

across 5 countries

#201 ●

of 16M given names

5 ●

recorded for this name

Sources
595 ●

11M records

Official registry-verified

1 in 453 ◐

United States

Spellings & scripts●

JeffreyLatin · English●8.8M records
ג'פריHebrew · Hebrew●5K records
เจฟเฟอรThai · Thai●1 records
ҶеффриCyrillic · Tajik●0 records
제프리Hangul · Korean●0 records

2 other spellings are counted as the same name:

Locally spelled Jeffery in FR France, MY Malaysia, CO Colombia and 5 more, Jeffry in CR Costa Rica, PE Peru and ג'פרי in IL Israel.

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●

From medieval Geffrey, from Old French Jefroi/Jeufroi; perhaps a form of Godfrey, or a distinct name with Germanic gala 'sing' or gawi 'region'.

Sources 1

  • Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]

Attested across 8 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world●

Sorted by bearers counted by national registers, records where none counts.

Where Jeffrey is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
US United States#41734,8269.2M rec.1 in 453735KJeffrey595
GB United Kingdom#75471,277470K rec.—3Jeffrey218
PH Philippines#45253,070225K rec.——Jeffrey169
AU Australia#101198,931173K rec.—89Jeffrey240
CA Canada#53197,395192K rec.—3Jeffrey252
IT Italy#17254,32056K rec.—8Jeffrey85
DE Germany#47735,64935K rec.—1Jeffrey164
IE Ireland#5621,62723K rec.——Jeffrey83
RU Russia#90421,57923K rec.——Jeffrey56
CN China—21,53822K rec.——Jeffrey94
EG Egypt#31117,25717K rec.——Jeffrey29
MY Malaysia#5998,51619K rec.——Jeffery107

Roughly 735K people in United States bear this name (about 1 in 453). Estimates project the name's share of our records onto national population, so each is only as good as the record base beside it — the Basis column gives that base; rows marked △ rest on fewer records than the estimate itself and are order-of-magnitude at best.

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table. How that works.

Languages●

  • English8.8M85%
  • Spanish341K3%
  • 230K2%
  • French74K1%
  • German69K1%
Show as table
Languages in which the name is recorded
NameRecordsNote
English8,799,33085%
Spanish341,0413%
230,4872%
French73,9601%
German68,8831%

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◐

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

  • Spanish given name457K records spelled Jeffrey21 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Philippines, Brazil, Colombia

    Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian

    Also written Jeff-Rey, Jëffrëy, Jêffrêy, Jêffrëy, Jęffręy

  • a separate given name249K records spelled Jeffrey3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Italy

    Also written Jeff-Rey, Jef-Frey

  • Polish given name41K records spelled Jeffrey35 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Poland, Czechia, United Kingdom

    Languages: Polish, Russian, Czech

    Also written Jeffery, Geoffrey, Джеффри, Jeffry, Geofrey

  • Thai given name15K records spelled Jeffrey25 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Thailand, United States, Philippines, Laos

    Languages: Thai, Lao

    Also written Geoffrey, Jeffry, เจฟฟรี่, เจฟฟรี, Jeffree

  • Italian given name13K records spelled Jeffrey2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, San Marino, Canada

    Also written Jëffrêÿ

  • Hungarian given name13K records spelled Jeffrey4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Hungary, United States, Finland, United Kingdom

    Languages: Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian

    Also written Jéffréÿ

67 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●

Jeffrey 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 French, Of Germanic origin, from Godefroy; interpreted here as 'peace of God'.

    as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)

  • In French, English form of Geoffrey, from Germanic elements.

    as a nameDictionnaire généalogique des prénoms

  • In English, Teutonic; divinely peaceful. See Geoffrey.

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

  • Variant spelling of Geoffrey, common in the Middle Ages (as reflected in surnames such as Jefferson). This is the usual spelling of the name in North America and is now becoming more common in Britain. Variant: Jeffery. Short form: Jeff. 126

    as a nameA concise dictionary of first names

  • In English, A male given name from the Germanic languages, the usual U.S. spelling of Geoffrey. Popular in the latter half of the 20th century.

    as a wordkaikki.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●

010K20K30K40K19001950200034K · 1962

Show as table
Jeffrey in SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present), United States, 1885–2025
Yearrecords
18855
19107
19116
191212
191313
191411
191521
191621
191718
191816
191922
192022
192119
192230
192327
192431
192526
192627
192726
192836
192919
193034
193116
193237
193336
193447
193543
193669
193787
1938156
1939378
1940799
19411,502
19422,055
19432,171
19442,325
19452,782
19464,125
19475,665
19485,929
19496,987
19507,644
19519,713
195212,006
195315,949
195419,052
195522,533
195623,285
195723,982
195824,223
195926,281
196028,841
196132,029
196233,537
196331,701
196430,728
196529,574
196630,200
196728,083
196828,369
196928,967
197030,139
197125,834
197221,677
197319,216
197419,320
197518,316
197617,013
197717,481
197816,989
197916,865
198016,379
198115,931
198216,030
198315,649
198414,758
198514,500
198613,651
198713,477
198812,401
198912,013
199010,980
19919,894
19928,471
19937,535
19946,525
19955,731
19965,263
19974,582
19984,191
19993,815
20003,563
20013,207
20023,000
20032,885
20042,723
20052,425
20062,267
20072,131
20081,998
20091,719
20101,625
20111,440
20121,508
20131,406
20141,380
20151,261
20161,173
20171,056
20181,016
2019881
2020794
2021727
2022681
2023622
2024588
2025544

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 117 years between 1885–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

19401950196019701980Jeff Bridges, b. 1949Jeffrey Epstein, b. 1953Jeffrey Sachs, b. 1954Tom Hanks, b. 1956Bernie Mac, b. 1957Jeffrey Dahmer, b. 1960Michael Jordan, b. 1963Jeff Bezos, b. 1964Jeffrey Wright, b. 1965Jeff Hardy, b. 1977
  • Jeff Bridgesb. 1949USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor
  • Jeffrey Epsteinb. 1953USAmerican sex offender and financier (1953–2019)
  • Jeffrey Sachsb. 1954USAmerican economist (born 1954)
  • Tom Hanksb. 1956USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor and film producer (born 1956)
  • Bernie Macb. 1957USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor (1957–2008)
  • Jeffrey Dahmerb. 1960USAmerican serial killer (1960–1994)
  • Michael Jordanb. 1963USnot in their usual nameAmerican basketball player and businessman (born 1963)
  • Jeff Bezosb. 1964USnot in their usual nameAmerican business magnate (born 1964)
  • Jeffrey Wrightb. 1965USAmerican actor (born 1965)
  • Jeff Hardyb. 1977USnot in their usual nameAmerican professional wrestler

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●

Attested in 104 sources across 56 countries.

Official registers attesting Jeffrey
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex2020735K#46
NL NetherlandsMeertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (live per-name BRP counts, 1790-2017)—15K#254
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010201011K#3,257
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000200011K#3,043
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020202010K#3,451
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des prénoms (1900–2024)20222.5K#2,721
EC EcuadorINEC — civil registry names20241.7K#524
CR Costa RicaTSE — electoral roll (padrón) names—1.1K#531
GY GuyanaGuyana — Official List of Electors July 20252025806#118
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex2020602#46
US United StatesSSA — National Baby Names (1880–present)2025544—
SE SwedenSkatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population)—472#2,888

Reference works 5

  • Dictionary of American Family Names
  • Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
  • Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
  • Wikipedia given-name tokens
  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 987 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Jeffrey?
We estimate roughly 740 thousand people bear Jeffrey (counting its spellings and scripts) across 5 countries in our records.
In which country does Jeffrey have the most bearers?
We estimate about 735 thousand people bear Jeffrey in the United States, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled jeffrey.
How common is Jeffrey compared with other names?
In the United States, Jeffrey is the 41st most common given name of 3,122,706 given names recorded there.
Is Jeffrey a male or female name?
Jeffrey 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 Jeffrey mean?
Recorded meaning: From medieval Geffrey, from Old French Jefroi/Jeufroi; perhaps a form of Godfrey, or a distinct name with Germanic gala 'sing' or gawi 'region'.
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/jeffrey

The same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use. Bulk access and licensing.

About this data

● measured from records◐ inferred from the name graph○ machine-generated

Data snapshot . Figures are rebuilt periodically and will change.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Jeffrey” — the 41st most common given name in United States. Data snapshot 2026-09-12.

See how Jeffrey parses inside a full name →