Given name & surname
Jacobus
“heel grabber”·“supplanter”
In Dutch use, Jacobus is a variant 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, Jacobus is a variant 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, Jacobus is a variant 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, Jacobus is a variant 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.
Explained through its name family
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1979. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin. In Dutch use, Jacobus is a variant 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
Jacobus through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 142
- 142 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 1997
- 8 babies
- 2025
- 5
- #12,777 for boys
- 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 boys, ranking No. 12,777 among boys’ names. The recent annual counts are too incomplete to establish a ten-year comparison. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 629 as a first name in 2020; 2,264 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.
Jacobus’s family of names
In Afrikaans usage, Jacobus has a short form in Cobus. In Dutch usage, Jacobus has a conventional equivalent in the English form James. In Dutch usage, Jacobus has a related form in Jacob.
Inner ring: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Around the world
Jacobus has relatives in 8 languages.
10 related names in 8 languages. Point at a dot, or tab to the map and use the arrow keys.
Nicknames & forms 6
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Across languages 39
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
- JamesEnglish
- Santiagoequivalent
- Thiagoequivalent
- Diegoequivalent
- Jaimeequivalent
- Yakovequivalent
- Seamusequivalent
- Jacquesequivalent
Show 31 moreShow fewer
- JacoboSpanish
- GiacomoItalian
- Jimequivalent
- JakubCzech
- Yagoequivalent
- Yakubequivalent
- Iagoequivalent
- Jakabequivalent
- Yaacovequivalent
- Jacoequivalent
- Yacobequivalent
- Jacopoequivalent
- Yakivequivalent
- יעקבequivalent
- Jakezequivalent
- Giacôbêequivalent
- Jokūbasequivalent
- يعقوبequivalent
- Jaakkoequivalent
- Jacóequivalent
- Yakupequivalent
- Xacobeequivalent
- Яковequivalent
- Iacobusequivalent
- Jiminyequivalent
- Chaimeequivalent
- Jockelequivalent
- Séamusequivalent
- Jaccoequivalent
- Iacopoequivalent
- Jaumeequivalent
People named Jacobus
- Jacobus Henricus van 't HoffDutch physical and organic chemist (1852-1911)
- Jasper CillessenDutch association football player (born 1989)
- Jacobus KapteynDutch astronomer, best known for his extensive studies of the Milky Way and as the first discoverer of evidence for galactic rotation (1851-1922)
- Jacobus ArminiusDutch theologian, inspirator of Arminianism, champion of tolerance (1560-1609)
- Jacobus Clemens non Papa16th-century Flemish composer (1510–1555)
- Jacobus GallusSlovenian Renaissance composer (1550–1591)
- Jim FouchéSouth African politician (1898–1980)
- Koos de la ReySouth African general (1847-1914)
- J. J. P. OudDutch architect (1890–1963)
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
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