Jeremy
Meaning
“God will uplift”
Goes by Jem, Jerry, Jez
Famously borne by Jeremy Jones, the big mountain snowboarder who founded Protect Our Winters. Famously borne by basketball star Jeremy Lin, a popular 1980s-90s ABC pick.
The story
Jeremy is the English form of Jeremiah, shaped first as a medieval vernacular name and later used in some English New Testament translations. The longer Hebrew name is traditionally read as Yahweh will exalt, but Jeremy developed its own English sound and familiar forms such as Jem, Jerry, and Jez. Its US curve is strongly generational. The name is nearly absent in the early decades, begins to register in the 1960s, rises sharply in the 1970s, and reaches its high point in the 1980s. It then steps down through the 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s. That compact rise and fall makes Jeremy feel younger than its medieval history. It is an old biblical form wearing the clear timestamp of late twentieth-century America, formal enough to stand alone and relaxed enough to shorten easily.
Jeremy in song
Jeremy
Pearl Jam (1991)
Eddie Vedder wrote it after reading a newspaper story about the death of a Texas teenager, a song about a kid nobody was really listening to, and the 1992 video made it inescapable.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Jeremy peaked in the 1980s.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
335 people · the #17,651 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 500,000 · median age 12
Among people named Jeremy living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 2010s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 47 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Jeremy
Most people given the name Jeremy in the United States were born between 1970 and 1999. The Jeremy 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 Jeremy deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Jeremy 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 Jeremy fits with your family’s names and surname.
Keep exploring
Nicknames for Jeremy · Chinese American baby names · Action sports names
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