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Jakob

The German and Scandinavian spelling of the Hebrew Jakub, from a root meaning "holder of the heel", the supplanter. In Poland it stays rare: fewer than a thousand men carry it, and the handful of newborn boys each year keeps thinning.

Jakob Pronunciation

Jakob is pronounced YAH-kop (/ˈjakɔp/).

Related names
Jakub Kuba
Alive in 2025
878
Newborns 2025
4
National rank
#1012

What Jakob means

Where Jakob comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.

Jakob begins in the Hebrew Ya'aqov, a name built on aqev, the word for heel. Scripture ties it to a birth, the second twin arriving with his hand around his brother's heel. From that came the sense of a supplanter, a holder of the heel, ten, który trzyma za piętę. In Poland the everyday form is Jakub, and its short version is Kuba.

The spelling Jakob is the one German and Scandinavian families kept, and it holds the same root as Jacob, Jacques, Giacomo, and Spanish Iago. The name spread with Saint James the Greater, patron of pilgrims, whose feast fixes the Polish imieniny on 25 July. Kuba answers to it just as readily.

Picture a class register in a Polish school, Jakob printed a single letter away from every Jakub in the room. The two forms share one origin and one heel. Say Kuba, and you are still calling the supplanter.

How many people are named Jakob

1 in 24312 men in Poland is named Jakob. 878 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1012 among male names.

People with the name Jakob 2019 → 2025
878 +260 since 2019
2020 644 +26
2021 684 +40
2022 735 +51
2023 783 +48
2024 823 +40
2025 878 +55

Jakob's popularity over time

4 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #1062 among newborns. It has been falling steadily since 2000. Still the #1012 name among living men, even as it slips to #1062 among newborns.

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4 newborns with the name Jakob in 2025
national rank #1062 that year

Where Jakob is most popular

Jakob is most popular in Lubusz, 296% above the national average (2 boys born 2019–2025), followed by West Pomeranian (+249%) and Lower Silesian (+213%).

More common than average Less common than average

Jakob as a middle name

Jakob is a first name for 878 men in Poland and a middle name for another 250, a 78/22 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 447th, between Alfonso (251) and Krzesimir (249).

As a first name
878
As a middle name
250
first name 78% middle name 22%
Middle-name ranking men

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