Jim

Jim is the everyday short form of James. James itself comes, through Latin, from the Hebrew name Jacob. In Irish, James is Séamus, so a Jim in an Irish family might just as easily be a Séamus on his baptism certificate. Jimmy and Jimmie are the usual longer pet forms.

For most of the twentieth century Jim was what people called a James rather than what they wrote on the form. Choosing it as the full, official name is a more recent habit, part of a wider liking for short, old-fashioned names like Tom, Pat and Frank.

In the CSO records Jim was rare for decades, with only a few boys a year. The numbers have grown slowly since the 2000s, and the best year so far was 2022, with 19 boys. In 2025 there were 14.