Jacob

Jacob is the English version of the Hebrew name Yaakov. Jacob was of course a very important person in the Old Testament, and the name Jacob means "holder of the heel," and "supplanter." The story there is that the biblical Jacob was born holding onto his twin brother Esau's heel, and later "supplanted" him--basically by being pretty tricky, when you come right down to it. First he persuaded Esau to trade his inheritance for a bowl of soup (mmm mmm good but surely not that good,) and later Jacob tricked their blind father into giving him instead of Esau. The lesson here might be that resourcefulness is an important asset to survival, because Jacob went on to have twelve sons who became the twelve tribes of Israel. Jacob is at a peak in popularity right now, having held the number one spot for more than five years. It's never really been an unpopular name, anyway, having always been in favor with Jewish families. If you name your baby Jacob he will most likely go through school with a few other Jacobs, so you might want to look for something a little less popular. If you have your heart set on the name though, go ahead. It's fine. Just pair it with a less common but still "normal" middle name, preferably one with a lot of nickname potential, like Robert or William, and there you go: the perfect baby name. The most usual nickname for Jacob is Jake, but since that name has also been given as a first name in its own right, I'll deal with it seperately at some point in the future.