Fun Facts About the Name Yaqoob
- 80 babies named Yaqoob: U.S. records list 80 babies given the name Yaqoob from 1880 through 2025.
What Does the Name Yaqoob Mean?
Yaqoob is the Arabic form of the Hebrew name Yaʿaqov, which English speakers know as Jacob. The Hebrew name is built on the root ʿ-q-b, whose basic sense is "heel," and on the verb ʿaqav, meaning "to follow at the heel" or "to supplant." Taken literally, the name means something like "he holds the heel" or "he follows closely"; the customary translation is "supplanter."
The Genesis story makes the meaning explicit. Jacob is born grasping the heel of his twin brother Esau (Genesis 25:26), and later he supplants Esau over the birthright and the blessing (Genesis 27:36). That wordplay is the traditional explanation of the name. Some scholars have proposed that Yaʿaqov was originally a shortened theophoric name of a different kind, but no such derivation has been established, and the heel/supplant root remains the standard explanation.
Arabic carries the same name as Yaʿqūb, the form used in the Quran for the patriarch Jacob, father of Yusuf (Joseph). Yaqoob is an English transliteration of that Arabic spelling; Yaqub and Yakub are among the other ways it is written in Latin letters.
Yaqoob Name History & Origins
Yaʿaqov is the name of one of the central figures of the Book of Genesis, the patriarch Jacob, also called Israel, whose twelve sons are presented as the ancestors of the tribes of Israel. The name runs through the Hebrew Bible in the narratives about him.
In the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures, the Septuagint, the name appears as Iakōb. The New Testament uses Iakōbos, which passed into Latin as Iacobus and from there into English as Jacob, while the same line produced the English name James. That Greek-and-Latin path is the source of the English and western European forms, and it is separate from the Arabic one.
In Arabic the name is Yaʿqūb, the form that appears in the Quran, where Jacob is a prophet and the father of Yusuf. Through the Quranic figure the name traveled with Islam into Persian, Turkish (Yakub), Urdu, and the languages of other Muslim communities. Among Arabic-speaking Christians, Yaʿqūb is the usual name for both the patriarch Jacob and the apostle James.
The English spelling Yaqoob is one of several ways of writing the Arabic Yaʿqūb; Yaqub is another. The differences come from transliteration choices rather than from separate names, including how the ʿayn (ʿ), a consonant with no direct English equivalent, is represented or dropped.
How Popular is the Name Yaqoob?
Yaqoob has historically been an exceptionally rare given name in the United States, remaining well outside the national mainstream. It saw its highest recorded annual births in 2016. Its best rank was #8,126 in 2016.
U.S. name popularity from 1880-2025, based on SSA data. Rank shows how the name compares with other names - lower numbers mean greater popularity. Births shows how many babies received the name each year.
| Year | Rank | Births | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | #10,638 | 7 | 0.0004% |
| 2024 | #12,244 | 6 | 0.0003% |
| 2023 | #12,177 | 6 | 0.0004% |
| 2022 | #14,243 | 5 | 0.0003% |
| 2020 | #11,957 | 6 | 0.0003% |
| 2019 | #14,040 | 5 | 0.0003% |
| 2018 | #9,634 | 8 | 0.0004% |
| 2017 | #8,803 | 9 | 0.0005% |
| 2016 | #8,126 | 10 | 0.0005% |
| 2014 | #12,052 | 6 | 0.0003% |
| 2012 | #10,726 | 7 | 0.0004% |
| 2009 | #14,436 | 5 | 0.0003% |
Name popularity over more than a century, based on Social Security Administration data. Gaps in the chart indicate years when the name does not appear in the published records.
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How the Name Yaqoob Shapes Your Personality and Life?
You have a strong need for freedom - physical, mental and spiritual. You hate bondage in any form. You have love of beauty and philosophy, and you desire achievement. You are willing to take spiritual matters on faith instead of subjecting them to mental analysis. You are inventive, intuitive and extremely methodical. Since your will is so strong, you are hard to convince. You also dislike advice. You love beauty and philosophy, and you desire achievement. You have a strong need for freedom - physical, mental and spiritual.
Creative and outgoing, you are always looking for an opportunity to show your abilities, especially before audience. You are very flexible and like to feel appreciated. You are looking for chances to mix with others socially and to communicate your ideas. You like to talk and can easily relate to different cultures and concepts. The biggest challenge for you is uncertainty. Easily getting bored, you can move from one job to another, switch projects and lovers. The high creative force can lead you either to happiness or unhappiness. If you understand your goals, if you can make major decisions in life and follow it directly and straight up without worry and uncertainty, you are able to achieve great heights.
✦ Yaqoob's Deeper Meaning & Tips for Parents Discover Yaqoob's symbolic numbers and practical tips for choosing a name that complements your child's birth date.