Yakov

“Variant of Jacob — Supplanter, or holder of the heel” — Hebrew, via Greek and Latin origin

Boy's name · #1281 in the US (2025) · 2020s

Yakov has appeared in US records since 1953 — best rank #1193 (2024) · 3,353 babies named Yakov all-time · 1 in 11,000 boys born in 2025.

Appears in 2020-2025 birth records of 2 states. See the full state-by-state map on this page.

Famous Yakovs

Yakov Zeldovich — Soviet physicist, physical chemist and cosmologist (1914-1987)
Yakov Sverdlov — Soviet politician
Yakov Dzhugashvili — first child of Josef Stalin (1907–1943)
Yakov Sinai — Russian-American mathematician
Yakov Protazanov — Russian film director and screenwriter (1881–1945)

Among 610 notable people named Yakov:

Military figures appear 5.96× more often than among typical names — e.g. Yakov Smushkevich, Soviet general of aviation.

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