Jason
The story
Jason sailed out of Greek myth: the leader of the Argonauts, who gathered heroes for a crew and went to the end of the known world for the Golden Fleece. The name itself is gentler than the legend, from the Greek iaomai, to heal, and a quieter Jason appears in the New Testament, sheltering Paul and Silas in Thessalonica. English speakers barely touched it until after the Reformation, and Americans barely touched it at all: for the first six decades of federal records it scarcely registers. Then, within a single generation, it went from nowhere to the third most popular boys' name of the entire 1970s. No one fully explains the leap. The name simply behaved like its hero: unknown one day, commanding a shipful of followers the next.
Jason's name family
One shared root links 5 names in English.
Shared root: from Greek Iason, tied to iaomai "to heal", the Argonauts' leader
The family
More branches
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Jason peaked in the 1970s.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
5,653 people · the #2,522 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 35,714 · median age 39
Among people named Jason living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1980s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 224 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Jason
Most people given the name Jason in the United States were born between 1970 and 1999. The Jason you meet today is most often in his 30s or 40s.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Jason deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Jason 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 Jason fits with your family’s names and surname.
Where Jason travels
Chinese American · a defining 1970s-80s ABC classic
Keep exploring
Nicknames for Jason · Greek baby names · Chinese American baby names
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