Girls' name · peaked in 1979

Jaclyn name popularity since 1925

49,722 babies born in the US from 1925 to 2025 were named Jaclyn. Half of them were born in 1987 or earlier, so the typical Jaclyn is about 39 years old in 2026. Jaclyn peaked in 1979 as the #124 name for girls, and it was outside the top 1,000 in 2025.

US babies since 1925: 49,722; Named Jaclyn, 1925–2025
Peak year: 1979; #124 for girls that year
Typical age: About 39; Median birth year 1987
In 2025: Not top 1,000; #2,790 for girls in 2025
Girls / boys: 99.8% girls; 49,620 girls · 102 boys
Most popular in: New Jersey; 2.52× its national share

Peak year is the year Jaclyn made up the largest share of US girls, in records going back to 1880. Typical age is based on births from 1925 on, not on who is living today.

Jaclyn births per year, 1925–2025

The biggest year by count was 1988. Measured as a share of all babies, Jaclyn peaked in 1979.

Fastest rise: Between 1976 and 1981, Jaclyn became 4.9× more common, from 1 in 4,510 baby girls to 1 in 923.
Steepest fall: Between 2003 and 2008, its share of baby girls fell by 60%, from 1 in 3,920 to 1 in 9,750.

Shaded on the chart. Both compare Jaclyn's share of all US girls five years apart, counting only years with at least 100 babies named Jaclyn.

Decade by decade

Babies named Jaclyn in each decade, and its rank among girls' names in the middle year of the decade (1935, 1945 … 2025).

Decade	Girls	Boys	Rank
1925–29	35	0	–
1930s	179	0	#2,360
1940s	396	0	#1,241
1950s	753	0	#1,056
1960s	710	0	#1,374
1970s	7,017	22	#1,815
1980s	21,802	67	#123
1990s	12,661	13	#256
2000s	3,979	0	#701
2010s	1,578	0	#1,457
2020–25	510	0	#2,790

Ranks count every name given to at least 5 girls that year, so they can go past 1,000.

Generation fingerprint

61.8% of babies named Jaclyn from 1925 to 2025 were born in the Millennial years (1981–1996). The full split by generation:

Where Jaclyn is most popular

The index compares Jaclyn's share of babies in each state with its share nationwide, 1925–2025 (1.50× = 50% more common). States with at least 300 babies named Jaclyn.

State	Index	Babies
New Jersey	2.52×	3,256
New York	1.68×	5,981
Massachusetts	1.65×	1,841
Connecticut	1.55×	788
Illinois	1.43×	3,258

Other spellings

Spellings that sound like Jaclyn and were given to at least 1,000 girls from 1925 to 2025, with the year each one was most popular.

Spelling	Girls	Peak year
Jaclyn (this page)	49,620	1979
Jaclynn	2,812	1990

Names with a similar story

Of the other 1999 names on this site, these six had the share of babies closest in shape to Jaclyn's from 1925 to 2025, however common each one got. Each line is scaled to its own high; the dashed line is Jaclyn.

Names from the same era

Other common names that peaked within two years of Jaclyn (1979).

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration national and state baby-name data, which covers names given to at least 5 babies of one sex in a year. About the data