A directory of the world's most notable living people named James. Headshots, occupations, one-liners, and one man determined to be listed first.
James comes from the Hebrew Ya'aqov, or Jacob, carried into English through the Latin Iacomus. In the Book of Genesis, Jacob is born gripping his twin brother's heel, so the name has long been read as "the heel grabber," or more kindly, "the supplanter," the one who follows and then takes the lead. Gentler tradition reads it as "may God protect."
It travelled well. Two apostles carried it, then kings of Scotland and England, and the King James Bible sent it around the English-speaking world. Six US presidents have answered to James, and it has sat near the top of the boys' name charts for centuries. Which is a polite way of saying there are a lot of us. Hence the ranking.