Jeffrey (name)

Jeffrey is a common English given name, and a variant form of the name Geoffrey (itself from a Middle French variant of Godfrey, Gottfried).

It has been argued that the common derivation of Middle French Geoffrey (or Geoffroy), Jeffery from Godfrey is mistaken, and that the names reflect two separate first Germanic elements god vs. gaut, which became conflated in Old High German by the end of the early medieval period.

Outside of North America, Geoffrey is more common than Jeffrey. Jeffrey and its variants are found as surnames, usually as a patronymic ending in -s (e.g., Jefferies, Jaffrays); The surname Jefferson is also a patronymic version of the given name. In Scotland, Jeffrey is most frequently found to be a surname.

Variations include Jeff, Jeffry, Jeffy, Jeffery, Jefferey, Jeffory, Jefrie, Geoff, Geoffrey, Jeffeory, Geffrey, Jefferson, and Jeffro.

Academia

 * Jeffrey Cole, American anthropologist
 * Jeffrey Garten (born 1946), American businessman and writer, professor and dean of Yale School of Management
 * Jeffrey Hackney (born 1941), British legal academic at Wadham College, Oxford
 * Jeffrey A. Hoffman (born 1944), American astronaut, professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
 * Jeffrey Kaplan (academic) (born 1954), American academic, author and book editor
 * Jeffrey Lagarias (born 1949), American professor of mathematics at the University of Michigan
 * Jeffrey B. Remmel (1948–2017), American mathematics professor of UC San Diego
 * Jeffrey Rosen (born 1964), American legal academic and commentator, professor of law at George Washington University Law School
 * Jeffrey Sachs (born 1954), American professor of economics and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, New York

Art

 * Jeffrey Rowbotham (1920-1984), Scottish architect
 * Jeffrey Schiff, American artist
 * Jeffrey Steele (artist) (1931-2021), British abstract artist

Business

 * Jeffrey Cheah (born 1945/1946), founder of Malaysian conglomerate Sunway Group
 * Jeffrey Hollender (born 1954), American entrepreneur, author and activist, co-founder and former CEO of Seventh Generation Inc.
 * Jeffrey Katzenberg (born 1950), American co-founder of DreamWorks SKG, CEO of DreamWorks Animation SKG, and film producer
 * Jeffrey Rosen, American billionaire businessman
 * Jeffrey Steinberger, American trial lawyer and founder of law firm, judge pro tem, adjunct law professor, TV legal analyst

Crime

 * Jeffrey Dahmer (1960-1994), American cannibalistic serial killer and sex offender
 * Jeffrey Dampier (1966-2005), American lottery winner who was murdered
 * Jeffrey "Jeff" Doucet (?-1984), American pedophile murdered by Gary Plauché
 * Jeffrey Epstein (1953-2019), American financier and convicted sex offender
 * Jeffrey Russell Hall (1978-2011), American political extremist killed by his son
 * Jeffrey R. MacDonald (born 1943), American former physician convicted of killing his family

Entertainment

 * Jeffrey Anderson-Gunter (born 1946), Jamaican film and television actor
 * Jeffrey Ching (born 1965), British contemporary classical composer
 * Jeffrey Combs (born 1954), American character actor best known for his horror film roles
 * Jeffrey Daniel (born 1955), American singer and dancer with the soul group Shalamar
 * Jeffrey DeMunn (born 1947), American actor
 * Jeffrey Donovan (born 1968), American actor
 * Jeffrey Goldblum (born 1952), American film and television actor
 * Jeffrey Hunter (1926-1969), American film and television actor
 * Jeffrey Jones (born 1946), American actor
 * Jeffrey Isbell (Izzy Stradlin) (born 1962), American musician
 * Jeffrey Lau (born 1955), Hong Kong film director, screenwriter, actor and producer
 * Jeffrey Lewis (born 1975), American musician and comic artist
 * Jeffrey Lyons (born 1944), American television and film critic
 * Jeffrey Marsh (born 1976/1977), American writer, activist actor, artist and author
 * Jeffrey Dean Morgan (born 1966), American actor
 * Jeffrey Ngai (born 1998), Hong Kong actor and singer
 * Jeffrey Nordling (born 1962), American actor
 * Jeffrey Osborne (born 1948), American singer–songwriter, musician and lyricist
 * Jeffrey Reiner, American film director, editor, screenwriter, television director, and producer
 * Jeffrey D. Sams (born 1968), American actor
 * Jeffrey Shih (born 1987), American video game player
 * Jeffrey Steele (born 1961), American singer and songwriter
 * Jeffrey Tambor (born 1944), American actor
 * Jeffrey Toobin (born 1960), American commentator and writer
 * Jeffrey Wright (actor) (born 1965), American film and television actor

Literature

 * Jeffrey Archer (born 1940), English author and former politician
 * Jeffrey Brown (comics) (born 1975), American comic book writer and artist
 * Jeffrey Carver (born 1949), American science fiction author
 * Jeffrey Daniels (author), Chicago-raised African American poet, artist, and professor
 * Jeffrey Eugenides (born 1960), American novelist and short story writer of Greek and Irish origins
 * Jeffrey Ford (born 1955), American novelist and story writer
 * Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson (born 1941), Sanskrit specialist and author who trained as a psychoanalyst in Toronto
 * Jeffrey Rowland (born 1974), American webcomic artist
 * Jeffrey Simpson (born 1949), American-born Canadian journalist and national affairs columnist with The Globe and Mail newspaper
 * Jeffrey S. Williams, American writer and Civil War historian

Military

 * Jeffrey Chessani (born 1963), former lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps
 * Jeffrey Feinstein (born 1945), former lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force
 * Jeffrey J. Schloesser, former major general in the U.S. Army
 * Jeffrey Williams (astronaut) (born 1958), former U.S. Army officer and astronaut

Sport

 * Jeffrey Bassa, American football player
 * Jeffrey Buttle (born 1982), Canadian figure skater
 * Jeffrey Carlson (1975-2023), American hockey player, one of the fictional Hanson Brothers from the film, "Slap Shot"
 * Jeffrey de Lange (born 1998), Dutch footballer
 * Jeffrey Earnhardt (born 1989), American racing driver
 * Jeffrey Finley (born 1991), Canadian football player
 * Jeffrey Gunter (born 1999), American football player
 * Jeffrey Jordan (born 1988), son of Michael Jordan, US former college basketball player
 * Jeffrey Lay (born 1969), Canadian rower
 * Jeffrey Lloyd (born 1961), horse racing jockey currently based in Australia

Other

 * Jeffrey Brenner, American CEO of the Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services

Fictional characters

 * Jeffrey P. Brookes III, on the TV sitcom The Ropers
 * Jeffrey Cross, aka OG Loc, from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
 * Jeffrey Dexter "Jeff" Boomhauer III, one of the main characters on the animated Fox Network TV series King of the Hill, voiced by Mike Judge
 * Jeffrey Goines, one of the main characters in the 1995 science fiction film 12 Monkeys, played by Brad Pitt
 * Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski, the main character in the 1998 crime comedy film The Big Lebowski, played by Jeff Bridges
 * Jeffrey Matthews a.k.a. Moondoggie, in the film Gidget, the two sequels Gidget Goes Hawaiian and Gidget Goes to Rome, played by James Darren
 * Jeffrey Michener, in the TV series The Last Ship, played by Mark Moses
 * Jeffrey Sinclair, one of the main characters in the 1990s science fiction TV series Babylon 5, played by Michael O'Hare
 * Jeffrey Hoytsman, a defense attorney and drug addict in the TV show Brooklyn 99
 * Jeffrey Woods, a serial killer from the Creepypasta Jeff the Killer