ninan.org

Jesse

Boys' name · Late 20th-century perennial

Living in the US
~337,100 survival-weighted estimate
2025 rank
#184 among boys
Births in 2025
2,074 444,920 since 1880
Typical age
37 years, median

Jesse popularity over time

Jesse rank by birth year, 1880–2025Jesse ranked #28 in 1880 and #184 in 2025. Its best rank in the period was #26, in 1882.#100#184best #26 in 188218901920195019802010
Rank among US baby names by birth year, 1880–2025. Lower is more popular; the scale is logarithmic so the top of the chart is not compressed.

More children were named Jesse in 1981 than in any other year — 10,823 of them. It appears in the very first year SSA covers, 1880. Jesse has spent 92 years inside the national top 100.

The 2025 position is #184, on 2,074 births.

Babies named Jesse per yearPeaks at 10,823 births in 1981.10,823 in 1981018901920195019802010
Recorded US births by year. The peak is labelled; the axis starts at zero.

How many people are named Jesse?

Roughly 337,100 Jesses are alive in the US right now. That is out of 444,920 recorded births since 1880.

This is a survival-weighted estimate, not a headcount: every recorded birth year is multiplied by the chance someone born that year is still alive, using the SSA period life table. How the estimate works.

How old is the average Jesse?

The typical living Jesse is 37 years old. More of them were born in the 1980s than in any other decade. By the site’s era rules that makes Jesse a late 20th-century perennial name.

Your Jesse

Ages of living people named JesseHalf of living Jesses are older than 37 and half younger.median 37020406080100
Estimated living bearers by age today. Each bar is a birth year, weighted by the chance someone born then is still alive.

Where Jesse is most common

Jesse is 2.9× as common in Alaska as it is nationally. Montana, South Dakota and New Mexico follow.

Where Jesse is used more than average5 states use the name Jesse more than the national average.Alaska: 2.9× the national rateAKMaine: not over-representedMEVermont: not over-representedVTNew Hampshire: not over-representedNHWashington: not over-representedWAIdaho: not over-representedIDMontana: 2.5× the national rateMTNorth Dakota: not over-representedNDMinnesota: not over-representedMNIllinois: not over-representedILWisconsin: not over-representedWIMichigan: not over-representedMINew York: not over-representedNYOregon: not over-representedORNevada: not over-representedNVWyoming: not over-representedWYSouth Dakota: 2.4× the national rateSDIowa: not over-representedIAIndiana: not over-representedINOhio: not over-representedOHPennsylvania: not over-representedPANew Jersey: not over-representedNJConnecticut: not over-representedCTRhode Island: not over-representedRICalifornia: not over-representedCAUtah: not over-representedUTColorado: not over-representedCONebraska: not over-representedNEMissouri: not over-representedMOKentucky: not over-representedKYWest Virginia: not over-representedWVVirginia: not over-representedVAMaryland: not over-representedMDDelaware: not over-representedDEMassachusetts: not over-representedMAArizona: not over-representedAZNew Mexico: 1.9× the national rateNMKansas: not over-representedKSArkansas: 1.7× the national rateARTennessee: not over-representedTNNorth Carolina: not over-representedNCSouth Carolina: not over-representedSCDistrict of Columbia: not over-representedDCOklahoma: not over-representedOKLouisiana: not over-representedLAMississippi: not over-representedMSAlabama: not over-representedALGeorgia: not over-representedGAHawaii: not over-representedHITexas: not over-representedTXFlorida: not over-representedFL
Same as national3× or more
Location quotient, 2016–2025. Shaded states use the name more than the country does, relative to their own births. Exact figures are in the table below.
States where Jesse is over-represented, 2016–2025. The location quotient compares the state's share of the name with the national share.
StateBirthsvs national rate
Alaska 80 2.9×
Montana 94 2.5×
South Dakota 98 2.4×
New Mexico 145 1.9×
Arkansas 240 1.7×

Jesse in England and Wales

ONS recorded 989 births named Jesse in 2025, ranking it #51.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Counts below three are suppressed by ONS.

Where the name Jesse comes from

From Ancient Greek Ἰεσσαί, from Hebrew יִשַׁי.

Etymology summarised from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0. Wiktionary entry.

Notable people named Jesse

Ordered by how many Wikipedia language editions have an article about them — a measure of reach, not of importance.
NameKnown forYearsEditions
Jesse Owens American track and field athlete 1913–1980 96
Jesse Jackson American Baptist minister, activist, civil rights leader, politician, and founder of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition 1941–2026 70
Jesse Eisenberg American actor 1983 69
Jesse Lingard English footballer 1992 57
Jesse James American outlaw, confederate guerrilla, and train robber 1847–1882 56
Jesse McCartney American singer and actor 1987 49
Jesse Jane American pornographic actress 1980–2024 45
Jesse Spencer Australian actor and musician 1979 45
Photo credits (7)

The sharpest rise. Births under this name jumped from 612 in 1911 to 1,133 in 1912 — 1.9 times over in a single year.

Birth records contain the rise and nothing about its cause. This site does not supply one.

People and dates from Wikidata (CC0), limited to those with an English Wikipedia article who are known by this name as their first name.

Names similar to Jesse

Matched by sound and spelling inside this dataset, then ordered by total recorded births. This is not a claim about shared etymology.

Related pages

Get this data

Every number on this page is available as JSON: /api/name/jesse.json. Free to use with attribution (CC BY 4.0).