Jacobus
given name · Latin script
Meaning, in English: A former English gold coin from the Jacobite period
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/dʒəˈkoʊbəs/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Jacobus is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the Netherlands than in any other country. In South Africa it is the 11th most common given name.
- NLNetherlands1 in 94(measured from records)
- ZASouth Africa≈1 in 545
- AUAustralia≈1 in 57K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Netherlands (measured from records)
- Sources
- 272 (measured from records)
- 1 in 94 (inferred from the name graph)
183,769 people
Highest-authority source
Netherlands
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
A former English gold coin from the Jacobite period.
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 19 languages in the etymology graph.
How Jacobus is read(measured from records)
Jacobus is one spelling over 3 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.
- English48%
A former English gold coin from the Jacobite period.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- Dutch28%
a male given name, the Latinized form of Jacob
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- Swahili8.6%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Jacobus in Swahili.
The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Jacobus counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NL Netherlands | #351 | 183,769 | 1 in 94 | 182K | Jacobus | 111 |
| ZA South Africa | #11 | ≈100,000 est. | ≈1 in 545 | — | Jacobus | 88 |
| NA Namibia | — | ≈700 est. | ≈1 in 3.7K | 15 | — | 8 |
| US United States | — | 629 | 1 in 529K | 2.4K | Jacobus | 272 |
| AU Australia | — | ≈450 est. | ≈1 in 57K | 3 | Jacobus | 68 |
| BE Belgium | — | ≈300 est. | ≈1 in 39K | 127 | Jacobus | 47 |
| NZ New Zealand | #863 | ≈120 est. | ≈1 in 42K | — | Jacobus | 18 |
183,769 people counted by Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (all-time BRP bearer counts, 2018). Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (all-time BRP bearer counts, 2018); Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; Australian national given names (aggregated state BDM); Familienaam.be — Belgian family-name frequency (population register); ECN Government Gazette 8791 — 2025 local authority candidates. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Jacobus is also recorded in 4 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In French, Le jacobus, monnaie d’or frappée sous le roi d’Angleterre Jacques I er , avait à peu près la même valeur que la guinée. Voir Guinée .
as a name2500 noms propres devenus communs : dictionnaire étymologique (éponymes, antonomases et hypallages)
In German, from Hebrew yaʿaqōb 'supplanter'
as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
In German, from Hebr. 'heel-holder'
as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
In German, patronymisch zu Jakob/Jacob; Belege: Jacob, Jakob, Jacobsen, Jacobs, Jeschke, Jäschke, Jaschke, Jeske, Jaske, Köpke, Kupke, Mainka, Kupka, Pelka, Mika, Köppel, Buresch, Bartesch, Kubesch, Janesch, Jungjohann, Altpeter, Langheinrich, Venjakob, Oberpaul, Jacobi, Jacoby
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 6: Familiennamen aus Rufnamen
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.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Jakob Fuggerb. 1459DEnot in their usual nameGerman merchant (1459-1526)
- Jacobus Kapteynb. 1851NLDutch astronomer, best known for his extensive studies of the Milky Way and as the first discoverer of evidence for galactic rotation (1851-1922)
- Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoffb. 1852NLDutch physical and organic chemist (1852-1911)
- Jacobus Oudb. 1890NLDutch architect (1890–1963)
- Bertus Aafjesb. 1914NLnot in their usual nameDutch poet and writer (1914–1993)
- Jamie Uysb. 1921ZAnot in their usual nameSouth African film director, film producer, screenwriter and film editor (1921-1996)
- Rinus Michelsb. 1928NLnot in their usual nameDutch footballer and manager (1928–2005)
- Johan Neeskensb. 1951NLnot in their usual nameDutch football manager and player (1951–2024)
- Armin van Buurenb. 1976NLnot in their usual nameDutch DJ and record producer (born 1976)
- Jasper Cillessenb. 1989NLnot in their usual nameDutch association football player (born 1989)
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).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 48 sources across 23 countries.
Reference works 6
- 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
- Wikipedia surname 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 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Jacobus mean, and where does it come from?
- A former English gold coin from the Jacobite period. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- What are other forms of the name Jacobus?
- In the etymology graph, James, Jaime and Jamie are forms of the same name in other languages; Jaap, Kobe and Sjaak are recorded short or pet forms.
- How do you pronounce Jacobus?
- A machine transcription gives /dʒəˈkoʊbəs/ (IPA) for English.
- Is Jacobus a male or female name?
- Jacobus 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.
- In which country does Jacobus have the most bearers?
- In the Netherlands, the national register counted about 184 thousand people named Jacobus, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled jacobus.
- Where is Jacobus most common?
- Jacobus is densest in the Netherlands, where the national register counts about 1 in 94 people carrying it.
- How common is the name Jacobus?
- In the Netherlands, the national register counted 183,769 people named Jacobus, about 1 in 94 residents.
- How common is Jacobus compared with other names?
- In the Netherlands, Jacobus is the 351st most common given name of 101,916 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Jacobus?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/jacobusThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
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, “Jacobus” — the 351st most common given name in Netherlands. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.