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James - Origin and Meaning of the name

Meaning of the name James

[ 1 syll. ja-mes, jam-es ] The girl name James is also used as a boy name, with the latter form being far more popular. It is pronounced JHEYMZ KEY. James has its origins in the Hebrew language and it is used largely in English. The meaning of James is 'Yahweh may protect; holder of heel; supplanter'. Derived from yahweh 'name of God' ; aqeb 'heel' ; aqab 'to supplant, to cheat'. See also the related forms, the English Jami and the English Jamie.

James is uncommon as a baby girl name. At the modest height of its usage in 1930, 0.036% of baby girls were named James. It was #323 in rank then. The baby name has seen a substantial drop in frequency since then, and is of only sporadic use today. In 2008, within the family of girl names directly related to James, the English Jamie was the most popular. James has primarily been a boy name in the last century. In 1989, 177 times more boys than girls were given the name James.

Baby names that sound like James include the English Jas, the Dutch Janneke, the Chinese Jong, the English Jynice, the English Jamese, the English Jamis, the English Jamise, the English Jancis, the English Janice, the English Janiece, the English Janis, the English Janise, the Czech, Hungarian, Polish, and German Janka, the Scandinavian Jannicke, the English Janyce, the English Jeancie, the Spanish Jemsa, the English Jenise, the Czech Jenka, and the Korean Jin-Joo.

A famous person named James is Model James King, born Jamie King 23 April 1979, Omaha, Nebraska.

KEY: Pronunciation for James: JH as in "gee (JH.IY)" ; EY as in "ate (EY.T)" ; M as in "me (M.IY)" ; Z as in "zee (Z.IY)"


 
Popularity Trend
for James
from 1900 to 2008
Variant Popularity Chart
for James
in 2008
 

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