# Jacobs (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/jacobs/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

An English surname originating as a patronymic derived from Jacob.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | not recorded |
| Type | patronymic, formed from a father’s (or ancestor’s) given name |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 118,614 |
| US rank (2010) | 257 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 2,603 people |
| Change since 2000 | +2.7% (115,540 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /ˈd͡ʒeɪkəbz/, 2 syllables |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Who carries it

Share of people named Jacobs in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 74% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 17% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.5% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.6% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 3.8% |
| Two or more races | 2.2% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Jacobs in the United States, Belgium, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Australia.

## People named Jacobs

- Danny Jacobs, American actor
- Marc Jacobs, American fashion designer (born 1963)
- Jane Jacobs, American–Canadian journalist, author, and activist (1916–2006)
- Gillian Jacobs, American film, theater and television actress
- Harriet Jacobs, American slave, writer, and abolitionist (1815-1897)
- Helen Jacobs, American tennis player (1908–1997)
- Joseph Jacobs, Australian folklorist, historian and writer (1854–1916)
- René Jacobs, Belgian (Flemish) countertenor and conductor (born 1946)
- Chosen Jacobs, American actor, singer
- Irwin M. Jacobs, American electrical engineer and philanthropist
- Karl Jacobs, American Twitch streamer and YouTuber (born 1998)
- Regina Jacobs, American athletics competitor (born 1963)

and 28 more on Wikidata.

## Similar surnames

Jacobus, Jacobson, Jacobsen, Josephson, Jakubowski, Josephs.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.