It is a modern descendant, through Old French James, of Vulgar Latin Iacomus (cf.

Italian Giacomo, Portuguese Tiago or Thiago (in ancient spelling although still used as a first name), Spanish Iago, Santiago), a derivative version of Latin Iacobus, Latin form of the Hebrew name Jacob (original Hebrew: יַעֲקֹב).

[2] The final -s in the English first names is typical of those borrowed from Old French, where it was the former masculine subject case (cf.

In the United States, James was one of the five most common given names for male babies for most of the 20th century.

Its popularity has declined considerably over the past 30 years, but it still remains one of the 20 most common names for boys.