Jaap
given name · Latin script
Meaning: a diminutive of the male given name Jacob
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/jaːp/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Jaap is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the Netherlands than in any other country, where it is the 94th most common given name.
- NLNetherlands1 in 2K(measured from records)
- USUnited States≈1 in 1.5M
- CHSwitzerland≈1 in 89K
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
- 161 (measured from records)
- 1 in 2.0K (inferred from the name graph)
8,627 people
Highest-authority source
Netherlands
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
a diminutive of the male given name Jacob
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 25 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Jaap 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 | #94 | 8,627 | 1 in 2K | 8.6K | Jaap | 161 |
| ZA South Africa | — | ≈520 est. | ≈1 in 109K | — | Jaap | 23 |
| DE Germany | — | ≈320 est. | ≈1 in 249K | 1 | Jaap | 64 |
| US United States | — | ≈220 est. | ≈1 in 1.5M | 245 | Jaap | 114 |
| BE Belgium | — | ≈130 est. | ≈1 in 92K | — | Jaap | 24 |
| CH Switzerland | — | ≈95 est. | ≈1 in 89K | — | Jaap | 16 |
8,627 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 — Surname Frequency 2020; the de-duesseldorf-vornamen register. 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)
Jaap is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In German, männl. Vom., niederländische Kurzform von
as a nameDUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen
In sea, to cry; to weep
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Dutch: pet form of JACOB .
as a word
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)
- Jacobus van Looyb. 1855NLnot in their usual nameDutch painter and writer (1855-1930)
- Jaap Edenb. 1873NLDutch speed skater and racing cyclist (1873-1925)
- Jaap Kunstb. 1891NLDutch ethnomusicologist (1891–1960)
- Jaap Spaandermanb. 1896NLDutch conductor (1896-1985)
- Jaap van Praagb. 1910NLDutch businessman and sports executive (1910-1987)
- Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zantenb. 1927NLnot in their usual nameDutch pilot (1927-1977)
- Jaap ter Lindenb. 1947NLDutch cellist, viol player and conductor
- Jaap de Hoop Schefferb. 1948NLDutch politician
- Jaap van Zwedenb. 1960NLDutch conductor (born 1960)
- Jaap Stamb. 1972NLDutch association football player and manager (born 1972)
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 35 sources across 19 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NL Netherlands | Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (all-time BRP bearer counts, 2018) | — | 8.6K | #256 |
| NL Netherlands | Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (live per-name BRP counts, 1790-2017) | — | 4.4K | #781 |
| NL Netherlands | SVB Kindernamen — annual newborn name frequency (Wayback-recovered) | 2017 | 26 | #542 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 5 | — |
| NL Netherlands | Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (all-time BRP bearer counts, 2018) | — | 5 | #34,383 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2022 | 5 | — |
| DE Germany | Stadt Düsseldorf Open Data — Vornamen Neugeborene | 2010 | 1 | — |
| DE Germany | DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen (2007) | — | — | — |
Reference works 4
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Wikipedia given-name 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 Jaap mean, and where does it come from?
- a diminutive of the male given name Jacob Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- What are other forms of the name Jaap?
- In the etymology graph, James, Jay and Jaime are forms of the same name in other languages; it is recorded as a short form of Jacobus.
- How do you pronounce Jaap?
- A machine transcription gives /jaːp/ (IPA) for Dutch.
- Is Jaap a male or female name?
- Jaap 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 Jaap have the most bearers?
- In the Netherlands, the national register counted about 8.6 thousand people named Jaap, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled jaap.
- Where is Jaap most common?
- Jaap is densest in the Netherlands, where the national register counts about 1 in 2.0 thousand people carrying it.
- How common is the name Jaap?
- In the Netherlands, the national register counted 8,627 people named Jaap, about 1 in 2.0 thousand residents.
- How common is Jaap compared with other names?
- In the Netherlands, Jaap is the 94th most common given name of 101,916 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Jaap?
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/jaapThe 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, “Jaap” — the 94th most common given name in Netherlands. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.