Jacob is a common male first name and a less well-known surname

Surname

A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases, a surname is a family name. Many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name"...

. Since 1999 and through 2010, Jacob has been the most popular baby name for newborn boys in United States. It is a cognate

Cognate

In linguistics, cognates are words that have a common etymological origin. This learned term derives from the Latin cognatus . Cognates within the same language are called doublets. Strictly speaking, loanwords from another language are usually not meant by the term, e.g...

 of James

James (name)

The name James is derived from the same Hebrew name as Jacob, meaning "Supplanter" ....

.
Jacob is derived from Late Latin Iacobus, from Greek Iakobos, from Hebrew (Yaʿqob, Yaʿaqov, Yaʿăqōḇ), the name of the Hebrew patriarch, Jacob

Jacob

Jacob "heel" or "leg-puller"), also later known as Israel , as described in the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, the New Testament and the Qur'an was the third patriarch of the Hebrew people with whom God made a covenant, and ancestor of the tribes of Israel, which were named after his descendants.In the...

 son of Isaac

Isaac

Isaac as described in the Hebrew Bible, was the only son Abraham had with his wife Sarah, and was the father of Jacob and Esau. Isaac was one of the three patriarchs of the Israelites...

. It is a speaking name, referring to the circumstances of Jacob's birth, meaning "heel-grabber" (from the Hebrew root ʿqb "heel"; literally, it is a finite verb formed from this root, and would translate to something like "he heeled"), since he held on to the heel of his twin brother Esau

Esau

Esau , in the Hebrew Bible, is the oldest son of Isaac. He is mentioned in the Book of Genesis, and by the minor prophets, Obadiah and Malachi. The New Testament later references him in the Book of Romans and the Book of Hebrews....

 inside Rebekah's womb. Jaakob may also mean "follower of God" in Aramaic. In a Christian context, the name Jacob – as James in English – is also associated with the apostles James, son of Zebedee who was the object of great veneration in the European Middle Ages, notably at Santiago de Compostela

Santiago de Compostela

Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain.The city's Cathedral is the destination today, as it has been throughout history, of the important 9th century medieval pilgrimage route, the Way of St. James...

; James the Just

James the Just

James , first Bishop of Jerusalem, who died in 62 AD, was an important figure in Early Christianity...

, brother of Jesus, who led the original Christian community in Jerusalem; and James, son of Alphaeus

James, son of Alphaeus

Saint James, son of Alphaeus was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. He is often identified with James the Less and commonly known by that name in church tradition....

.

Since Jacob is also venerated as as a Prophet of Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

, his name is commonly used as a male first name in Arab and Muslim societies (Arabic Yakub

Yakub

Yakub is according to the Nation of Islam, a black scientist who lived "6,600 years ago" and was responsible for creating the white race to be a "race of devils"...

, Turkish Yakup

Yakup

Yakup is a Turkish given name for males. People named Yakup include:* Yakup Ağa, Ottoman cavalry knight* Yakup Bugun, Turkish footballer* Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu, Turkish novelist* Yakup Kılıç, Turkish boxer...

).

Nicknames

• Jake
• Jakey
• Jakie
• Coby
• Koby
• Jac
• Jak
• Jack
• Jackie
• Jacky
• Jocko
• Jacoby
• Jeggy

Variants

• English
  English language
  English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
  
   – Jacob, Jakob, Jakeb, James
  James (name)
  The name James is derived from the same Hebrew name as Jacob, meaning "Supplanter" ....
  
  , Jayme, Jaime, Jimi
• Afrikaans - Jakob, Jacob
• Arabic
  Arabic language
  Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
  
   - Yaʿqūb (Yakub
  Yakub
  Yakub is according to the Nation of Islam, a black scientist who lived "6,600 years ago" and was responsible for creating the white race to be a "race of devils"...
  
  ) (يعقوب)
• Bosnian
  Bosnian language
  Bosnian is a South Slavic language, spoken by Bosniaks. As a standardized form of the Shtokavian dialect, it is one of the three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina....
  
   - Jakub (Jakup)
• Armenian
  Armenian language
  The Armenian language is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian people. It is the official language of the Republic of Armenia as well as in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The language is also widely spoken by Armenian communities in the Armenian diaspora...
  
   - Hakob (Հակոբ), Hagop (Հակոփ)
• Bulgarian
  Bulgarian language
  Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...
  
   - Yakov (Яков)
• Catalan
  Catalan language
  Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
  
   - Jacob, Jaume, Dídac
• Chinese
  Chinese language
  The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
  
   - Yǎgè 雅各
• Cornish
  Cornish language
  Cornish is a Brythonic Celtic language and a recognised minority language of the United Kingdom. Along with Welsh and Breton, it is directly descended from the ancient British language spoken throughout much of Britain before the English language came to dominate...
  
   - Jago, Jammes, Jamma
• Croatian
  Croatian language
  Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
  
   - Jakov
• Czech
  Czech language
  Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
  
   - Jakub, Kuba
• Danish
  Danish language
  Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
  
   - Jacob, Jakob, Jep, Jeppe, Ib
• Dutch
  Dutch language
  Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
  
   - Jaak, Jaap, Jakob, Jacob, Jacobus, Sjaak
• Estonian
  Estonian language
  Estonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various émigré communities...
  
   - Jaak, Jaagup, Jakob
• Faroese
  Faroese language
  Faroese , is an Insular Nordic language spoken by 48,000 people in the Faroe Islands and about 25,000 Faroese people in Denmark and elsewhere...
  
   - Jákup
• Finnish
  Finnish language
  Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
  
   - Jaakob, Jaakoppi, Jaakko
• French
  French language
  French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
  
   - Jacques, Jacqueline (fem.)
• Galician
  Galician language
  Galician is a language of the Western Ibero-Romance branch, spoken in Galicia, an autonomous community located in northwestern Spain, where it is co-official with Castilian Spanish, as well as in border zones of the neighbouring territories of Asturias and Castile and León.Modern Galician and...
  
   - Xacobe, Santiago
  Santiago (name)
  Santiago, is a Spanish name that derives from the Hebrew name Jacob via "Sant Iago," "Sant Yago," "Santo Iago," or "Santo Yago," first used to denote Saint James the Great, the brother of John the Apostle...
  
  , Iago, Xaime
• German
  German language
  German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
  
   - Jakob, Jacob [ja:kop]
• Greek
  Greek language
  Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
  
   - Iákovos (Ιάκωβος), Iakóv (Ιακώβ), Yángos (Γιάγκος)
• Hebrew
  Hebrew language
  Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
  
   - Ya'akov (יעקב), Koby, Ya'akova (female)
• Hungarian
  Hungarian language
  Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
  
   - Jakab, Jákob
• Irish
  Irish language
  Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
  
   - Séamas, Séamus, Iacób
• Italian
  Italian language
  Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
  
   - Giacomo, Jacopo, Giacobbe
• Korean
  Korean language
  Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
  
   - Yagop (야곱)
• Latin - Iacóbus
• Latvian
  Latvian language
  Latvian is the official state language of Latvia. It is also sometimes referred to as Lettish. There are about 1.4 million native Latvian speakers in Latvia and about 150,000 abroad. The Latvian language has a relatively large number of non-native speakers, atypical for a small language...
  
   - Jēkabs
• Lithuanian
  Lithuanian language
  Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they...
  
   - Jokūbas
• Malayalam
  Malayalam language
  Malayalam , is one of the four major Dravidian languages of southern India. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India with official language status in the state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry. It is spoken by 35.9 million people...
  
   - Chacko, Yakob
• Persian
  Persian language
  Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
  
   - Yaghub
• Polish
  Polish language
  Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
  
   - Jakub (short form: Kuba)
• Portuguese
  Portuguese language
  Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
  
   - Jacob, Jacó (orthographic variation of the former), Iago (from the Latin Jacobus), Santiago
  Santiago (name)
  Santiago, is a Spanish name that derives from the Hebrew name Jacob via "Sant Iago," "Sant Yago," "Santo Iago," or "Santo Yago," first used to denote Saint James the Great, the brother of John the Apostle...
  
   (from Sant Iago, "Saint James"), Tiago (a reduction of Santiago, now the most common version; saints named "James" in English are São Tiago in Portuguese), Thiago (orthographic variation), Diogo, Jaime, Jácomo (from Italian Giacomo)
• Slovenian - Jakob [ja:kop], Jaka
• Romanian
  Romanian language
  Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
  
   - Iacob, Iacov
• Russian
  Russian language
  Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
  
   - Yakov (Иаков, Яков), Jascha, Yasha (Яша)
• Samoan
  Samoan language
  Samoan Samoan Samoan (Gagana Sāmoa, is the language of the Samoan Islands, comprising the independent country of Samoa and the United States territory of American Samoa. It is an official language—alongside English—in both jurisdictions. Samoan, a Polynesian language, is the first language for most...
  
   - Iakopo, (eh-yuk-oh-po)
• Scandinavian - Jakob, Jacob
• Scots
  Scots language
  Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...
  
   - Hamish
• Scottish Gaelic
  Scottish Gaelic language
  Scottish Gaelic is a Celtic language native to Scotland. A member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, like Modern Irish and Manx, developed out of Middle Irish, and thus descends ultimately from Primitive Irish....
  
   - Seumas
• Serbian
  Serbian language
  Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
  
   - Jakov (Јаков)
• Slovak
  Slovak language
  Slovak , is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages .Slovak is the official language of Slovakia, where it is spoken by 5 million people...
  
   - Jakub
• Sorbian - Jakub
• Spanish
  Spanish language
  Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
  
   - Jacob, Jacobo, Jaime, Yago, Diego
  Diego
  Diego is a Spanish male name derived from the Hebrew Yaʻăqōbh , via the name of Saint James the Great , re-analysed as Santiago and San Diego...
  
  , Santiago
  Santiago (name)
  Santiago, is a Spanish name that derives from the Hebrew name Jacob via "Sant Iago," "Sant Yago," "Santo Iago," or "Santo Yago," first used to denote Saint James the Great, the brother of John the Apostle...
  
  , Iago
• Swedish
  Swedish language
  Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
  
   - Jakob, Jacob
• Syriac
  Syriac language
  Syriac is a dialect of Middle Aramaic that was once spoken across much of the Fertile Crescent. Having first appeared as a script in the 1st century AD after being spoken as an unwritten language for five centuries, Classical Syriac became a major literary language throughout the Middle East from...
  
   - ܝܥܩܘܒ (Yaʿqub), also (Yaqo, Yaqko)
• Turkish
  Turkish language
  Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
  
   - Yakup
  Yakup
  Yakup is a Turkish given name for males. People named Yakup include:* Yakup Ağa, Ottoman cavalry knight* Yakup Bugun, Turkish footballer* Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu, Turkish novelist* Yakup Kılıç, Turkish boxer...
  
  
• Ukrainian
  Ukrainian language
  Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet....
  
   - Yakiv (Яків)
• Vietnamese
  Vietnamese language
  Vietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam...
  
   - Giacôbê
• Welsh
  Welsh language
  Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
  
   - Siam, Jacob, Jac, Jago
• Yiddish
  Yiddish language
  Yiddish is a High German language of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, spoken throughout the world. It developed as a fusion of German dialects with Hebrew, Aramaic, Slavic languages and traces of Romance languages...
  
  - Yankev, Yankl, Yankel, Yankele