Given name & surname
Jaap
“heel grabber”·“supplanter”
In Dutch use, Jaap is an affectionate form of Jacob. Traditional interpretations include “heel grabber” and “supplanter”—someone who takes another’s place. Both come from the biblical narrative, while the name’s original linguistic derivation remains debated.
Meaning & origin
What it means
In Dutch use, Jaap is an affectionate form of Jacob. Traditional interpretations include “heel grabber” and “supplanter”—someone who takes another’s place. Both come from the biblical narrative, while the name’s original linguistic derivation remains debated.
Explained through its name family
Where it comes from
In Dutch use, Jaap is an affectionate form of Jacob. Jacob is the English and Dutch form of the Hebrew Yaakov. James belongs to the same older name family, despite looking quite different in English.
Explained through its name family
How it developed
In Dutch use, Jaap is used as an affectionate form of Jacob. In Dutch use, Jaap is an affectionate form of Jacob. The shared background comes through Jacob: The link with Hebrew akev, “heel,” comes from Genesis 25:26: Jacob is born holding his older twin Esau’s heel. In Genesis 27:36, Esau connects the name with being supplanted after Jacob gains his birthright and their father’s blessing. These episodes explain the traditional meanings; they do not settle how the name first arose.
Combines direct and name-family evidence
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 2022. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin. In Dutch use, Jaap is an affectionate form of Jacob. The history of Jacob gives this family its wider story. In Genesis, Jacob is the son of Isaac and Rebecca and the father of twelve sons associated with the twelve tribes of Israel. His name has a long history in Jewish and Christian communities. The related name James developed through a different Late Latin form, Iacomus, eventually becoming distinct from Jacob in English.
Combines direct and name-family evidence
Jaap through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 10
- 0 boys · 10 girls
- Most popular year
- 2022
- 5 babies
- 2025
- 5
- #15,863 for girls
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 5 U.S. birth records for girls, ranking No. 15,863 among girls’ names. The recent annual counts are too incomplete to establish a ten-year comparison. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 245 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Jaap’s family of names
In Dutch usage, Jaap is a diminutive of Jacob. In Dutch usage, Jaap has a conventional equivalent in the Italian form Giacomo. Jaap is an affectionate form of Jacob.
Inner ring: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Around the world
Jaap has relatives in 4 languages.
9 related names in 4 languages. Point at a dot, or tab to the map and use the arrow keys.
Nicknames & forms 5
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Across languages 4
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named Jaap
- Jaap de Hoop SchefferDutch politicianborn 1948
- Jaap StamDutch association football player and managerborn 1972
- Jaap EdenDutch speed skater and racing cyclist (1873-1925)
- Jaap van ZwedenDutch conductor (born 1960)
- Jaap MolDutch footballer (1912-1972)
- Jaap MeijerDutch racing cyclist1905–1943
- Jacob Veldhuyzen van ZantenDutch pilot (1927-1977)
- Jaap KunstDutch ethnomusicologist (1891–1960)
- Jaap BulderDutch footballer (1896-1979)
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Appears in
Similar names
If you love Jaap, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
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