Jeffrey
given name · Latin script
Meaning: From medieval Geffrey, from Old French Jefroi/Jeufroi; perhaps a form of Godfrey, or a distinct name with Germanic gala 'sing' or gawi 'region'
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/dʒɛfɹi/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Jeffrey is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. In Singapore it is the 21st most common given name.
- IEIreland≈1 in 326(inferred from the name graph)
- CNChina≈1 in 330
- NZNew Zealand≈1 in 398
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.
- China (inferred from the name graph)
- #97 (measured from records)
- 5 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 660 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 326 (inferred from the name graph)
≈4,200,000 people, est.
of 15M given names
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Ireland, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled Jeffery in NZ New Zealand.
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
From medieval Geffrey, from Old French Jefroi/Jeufroi; perhaps a form of Godfrey, or a distinct name with Germanic gala 'sing' or gawi 'region'.
Sources 1
- Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]
Attested across 7 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Jeffrey 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN China | — | ≈4,200,000 est. | ≈1 in 330 | — | Jeffrey | 93 |
| US United States | #39 | 735,428 | 1 in 452 | 735K | Jeffrey | 660 |
| PH Philippines | #38 | ≈240,000 est. | ≈1 in 452 | — | Jeffrey | 184 |
| GB United Kingdom | #77 | ≈150,000 est. | ≈1 in 443 | 3 | Jeffrey | 282 |
| EG Egypt | #419 | ≈97,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.1K | — | Jeffrey | 31 |
| CA Canada | #52 | ≈85,000 est. | ≈1 in 445 | 3 | Jeffrey | 329 |
| IE Ireland | #38 | ≈16,000 est. | ≈1 in 326 | — | Jeffrey | 92 |
| SG Singapore | #21 | ≈13,000 est. | ≈1 in 476 | — | Jeffrey | 137 |
| NZ New Zealand | #305 | ≈12,000 est. | ≈1 in 398 | 10 | Jeffery | 117 |
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: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; NISRA — Baby names Northern Ireland full list (1997–present); Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender; DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present). 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)
Jeffrey is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In French, Of Germanic origin, from Godefroy; interpreted here as 'peace of God'.
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
In French, English form of Geoffrey, from Germanic elements.
as a nameDictionnaire généalogique des prénoms
In English, Teutonic; divinely peaceful. See Geoffrey.
as a nameBaby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…
Variant spelling of Geoffrey, common in the Middle Ages (as reflected in surnames such as Jefferson). This is the usual spelling of the name in North America and is now becoming more common in Britain. Variant: Jeffery. Short form: Jeff. 126
as a nameA concise dictionary of first names
In English, A male given name from the Germanic languages, the usual U.S. spelling of Geoffrey. Popular in the latter half of the 20th century.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
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)
- Jeff Bridgesb. 1949USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor
- Jeffrey Epsteinb. 1953USAmerican sex offender and financier (1953–2019)
- Jeffrey Sachsb. 1954USAmerican economist (born 1954)
- Tom Hanksb. 1956USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor and film producer (born 1956)
- Bernie Macb. 1957USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor (1957–2008)
- Jeffrey Dahmerb. 1960USAmerican serial killer (1960–1994)
- Michael Jordanb. 1963USnot in their usual nameAmerican basketball player and businessman (born 1963)
- Jeff Bezosb. 1964USnot in their usual nameAmerican business magnate (born 1964)
- Jeffrey Wrightb. 1965USAmerican actor (born 1965)
- Jeff Hardyb. 1977USnot in their usual nameAmerican professional wrestler
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 107 sources across 56 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 735K | #46 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 602 | #46 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 544 | — |
| CA Canada | Statistics Canada — First names at birth by sex at birth (Table 17-10-0147-01) | 2024 | 27 | — |
| NZ New Zealand | DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present) | 2012 | 10 | — |
| CA Canada | Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender | 2024 | 3 | #1,147 |
Reference works 5
- 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
- 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
- Is Jeffrey a male or female name?
- Jeffrey 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.
- What does the name Jeffrey mean, and where does it come from?
- From medieval Geffrey, from Old French Jefroi/Jeufroi; perhaps a form of Godfrey, or a distinct name with Germanic gala 'sing' or gawi 'region'. Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].
- What are other forms of the name Jeffrey?
- In the etymology graph, Jeffery, Geoffrey and Jeffry are forms of the same name in other languages; Jeff, Geoff and Jep are recorded short or pet forms.
- How common is the name Jeffrey?
- In the United States, the national register counted 735,428 people named Jeffrey in 2020, about 1 in 452 residents.
- How common is Jeffrey compared with other names?
- In Singapore, Jeffrey is the 21st most common given name of 52,448 given names recorded there.
- In which country does Jeffrey have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 4.2 million people named Jeffrey in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled jeffrey.
- How do you pronounce Jeffrey?
- A machine transcription gives /dʒɛfɹi/ (IPA) for English.
What do you want to know about Jeffrey?
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/jeffreyThe 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, “Jeffrey” — the 21st most common given name in Singapore. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.