Jared
Meaning
traditionally "descent"
The story
Jared comes from the Hebrew Yared, traditionally connected with 'descent,' and belongs in Genesis to an ancestor of Noah who lives for an astonishing 962 years. The name remained mostly inside scripture until the Protestant Reformation encouraged English families to search deeper into the Old Testament. America waited longer still. Jared was barely present in early records, then rose sharply from the 1960s, when the television western The Big Valley introduced the character Jarrod Barkley. The timing matches, though the curve cannot prove one character caused a national choice. Jared peaked across the 1990s and 2000s, then eased through the 2010s and 2020s. An antediluvian name became a late-twentieth-century standard, a journey almost as surprising as the age of its first bearer.
On record since at least 1736: Jared Eliot, Connecticut minister and agronomist, named on a dated 1736 imprint.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Jared peaked in the 1990s and the 2000s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
339 people · the #17,486 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 500,000 · median age 27
Among people named Jared living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1990s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 25 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Jared
Most people given the name Jared in the United States were born between 1980 and 2009. The Jared you meet today is most often in his 20s or 30s.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Jared deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Jared truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Jared fits with your family’s names and surname.
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