How common is the name James?

2,996,421 people in the United States have the first name James, about 1 in 101. It ranks #3 of 53,615 first names in the 2020 Census.

first name

JAMES

#3

of 53,615 first names recorded in the 2020 Census

People
2,996,421
About
1 in 101
This common or more
3.2%
Who bears it

Of the 2,996,421 people named James, 82% reported their origin as White, 9.7% as Black and 3.4% as Hispanic or Latino. Virtually all are male (99.9%). These count how people described themselves on the 2020 Census, not where the name comes from.

James peaked in 1947, when 95,024 babies got the name.

Births per year, SSA records 1880–2025
18802025
Peak year
1947
Births that year
95,024
In 2025*
12,004 ▼87%
Recorded as
almost entirely male

At least 5,274,520 babies have been given the name since 1880. Years SSA withheld, because fewer than 5 were born, are skipped rather than drawn as zero. * 2025 is the newest year published and it undercounts: a card application is filed some time after a birth.

James by decade

Among all names given to American babies, it ranked #1 in every decade from the 1940s to the 1950s. The largest share of babies named James, 29.9%, were born during the baby boom (1946–1964).

1880s#454,322
1890s#551,005
1900s#562,527
1910s#4276,392
1920s#4518,511
1930s#3550,385
1940s#1798,341
1950s#1846,311
1960s#4687,738
1970s#6447,543
1980s#9359,097
1990s#15245,648
2000s#20163,609
2010s#14140,143
2020s#972,948
Before 19012.1%
Greatest Generation 1901–2714.1%
Silent Generation 1928–4520.8%
Baby boom 1946–6429.9%
Generation X 1965–8015.2%
Millennials 1981–969.6%
Generation Z 1997–125%
2013 and later3.3%

Rank counts both sexes together, among every name SSA recorded that decade; the number under it is births. The 2020s run only to 2025. Generation years follow Pew Research Center, which has not named a generation after 2012.

Where James is most common

Compared with all babies born in each state since 1910, James has been most common in Mississippi (1.8×), South Carolina (1.7×), and Alabama (1.7×), and least common in Arizona (0.51×).

5,102,071 births recorded by state, 1910–2025. 2× means twice as common as nationally. States with fewer than 30 such births are left blank, and SSA withholds any year with fewer than 5 in a state, so small states read low.

Either side of James

#1 Michael · 3,476,721#2 John · 3,125,123#4 David · 2,813,017#5 Robert · 2,759,339

Spelled almost the same

8 first names in the 2020 Census spelled within a letter or two of James, most common first.

#7,152 Jaymes · 2,156#8,776 Janes · 1,633#15,769 Jamese · 725#17,946 Jamez · 606#25,331 Jamis · 375#26,555 Jamesa · 350#27,021 Jaimes · 341#28,678 Jams · 312

Also a last name

As a last name, James ranks #86 of 156,621, with 243,502 people. See James as a last name

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