Jeffrey (given name)
Jeffrey is a common English given name, and a variant form of the name Geoffrey.
It has been argued that the common derivation of Middle French Geoffrey, 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 ; 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.
People with the given name Jeffrey
Academia
- Jeffrey Cole, American anthropologist
- Jeffrey Garten, American businessman and writer, professor and dean of Yale School of Management
- Jeffrey Hackney, British legal academic at Wadham College, Oxford
- Jeffrey A. Hoffman, American astronaut, professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Jeffrey Kaplan (academic), American academic, author and book editor
- Jeffrey Lagarias, American professor of mathematics at the University of Michigan
- Jeffrey B. Remmel, American mathematics professor of UC San Diego
- Jeffrey Rosen, American legal academic and commentator, professor of law at George Washington University Law School
- Jeffrey Sachs, American professor of economics and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, New York
- Jeffrey L. Seglin, American writer and teacher
Art
- Jeffrey Rowbotham, Scottish architect
- Jeffrey Cheung, American skateboarder and artist
- Jeffrey Schiff, American artist
- Jeffrey Steele (artist), British abstract artist
Business
- Jeffrey Bezos, American entrepreneur, former president and CEO of Amazon, fourth richest person in the world
- Jeffrey Cheah, founder of Malaysian conglomerate Sunway Group
- Jeffrey Hollender, American entrepreneur, author and activist, co-founder and former CEO of Seventh Generation Inc.
- Jeffrey Katzenberg, 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, American cannibalistic serial killer and sex offender
- Jeffrey Dampier, American lottery winner who was murdered
- Jeffrey "Jeff" Doucet, American pedophile murdered by Gary Plauché
- Jeffrey Epstein, American financier and convicted sex offender
- Jeffrey Russell Hall, American political extremist killed by his son
- Jeffrey R. MacDonald, American former physician convicted of killing his family
Entertainment
- Jeffrey Anderson-Gunter, Jamaican film and television actor
- Jeffrey Ching, British contemporary classical composer
- Jeffrey Combs, American character actor best known for his horror film roles
- Jeffrey Daniel, American singer and dancer with the soul group Shalamar
- Jeffrey DeMunn, American actor
- Jeffrey Donovan, American actor
- Jeff Garcia (comedian), American actor and stand-up comedian
- Jeffrey Goldblum, American film and television actor
- Jeffrey Hunter, American film and television actor
- Jeffrey Isbell, American musician
- Jeffrey Jones, American actor
- Jeffrey Lau, Hong Kong film director, screenwriter, actor and producer
- Jeffrey Lewis, American musician and comic artist
- Jeffrey Lyons, American television and film critic
- Jeffrey Marsh, American writer, activist actor, artist and author
- Jeffrey Dean Morgan, American actor
- Jeffrey Ngai, Hong Kong actor and singer
- Jeffrey Nordling, American actor
- Jeffrey Osborne, American singer–songwriter, musician and lyricist
- Jeffrey Reiner, American film director, editor, screenwriter, television director, and producer
- Jeffrey D. Sams, American actor
- Jeffrey Shih, American video game player
- Jeffrey Steele, American singer and songwriter
- Jeffrey Tambor, American actor
- Jeffrey Toobin, American commentator and writer
- Jeffrey Wright, American film and television actor
Literature
- Jeffrey Archer, English author and former politician
- Jeffrey Brown (cartoonist), American comic book writer and artist
- Jeffrey Carver, American science fiction author
- Jeffrey Daniels (author), Chicago-raised African American poet, artist, and professor
- Jeffrey Eugenides, American novelist and short story writer of Greek and Irish origins
- Jeffrey Ford, American novelist and story writer
- Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, Sanskrit specialist and author who trained as a psychoanalyst in Toronto
- Jeffrey Rowland, American webcomic artist
- Jeffrey Simpson, 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, former lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps
- Jeffrey Feinstein, former lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force
- Jeffrey J. Schloesser, former major general in the U.S. Army
- Jeffrey Williams (astronaut), former U.S. Army officer and astronaut
Sport
- Jeffrey Bassa, American football player
- Jeffrey Buttle, Canadian figure skater
- Jeffrey Alan "Jac" Caglianone, American baseball player
- Jeffrey Carlson, American hockey player, one of the fictional Hanson Brothers from the film, "Slap Shot"
- Jeffrey de Lange, Dutch footballer
- Jeffrey Earnhardt, American racing driver
- Jeffrey Finley, Canadian football player
- Jeffrey Gunter, American football player
- Jeffrey Jordan, son of Michael Jordan, US former college basketball player
- Jeffrey Lay, Canadian rower
- Jeffrey Lloyd, horse racing jockey currently based in Australia
- Jeffrey M'Ba, American football player
Other
- Jeffrey Brenner, American CEO of the Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services
- Jeffrey Mtolo, South African politician
- Jeffrey Skiles, American airline pilot
Fictional characters
- Jeffrey P. Brookes III, in the TV series The Ropers
- Jeffrey Cross, OG Loc, in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
- Jeffrey Dexter "Jeff" Boomhauer III, introduced in 1997 as a main character in the TV series King of the Hill
- Jeffrey Goines, a main character in the film 12 Monkeys
- Jeffrey Hoytsman, introduced in 2015 as a defense attorney in the TV series Brooklyn Nine-Nine
- Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski, the title character in the film The Big Lebowski
- Jeffrey Matthews a.k.a. Moondoggie, introduced in 1957 as a main character in the Gidget media franchise
- Jeffrey Michener, introduced in 2015 as President of the United States in the TV series The Last Ship; see List of The Last Ship episodes
- Jeffrey Sinclair, introduced in 1988 as the commander of the eponymous space station in the TV series Babylon 5
- Jeffrey Sparkman, the titular character from the 2010 U.S. TV show Nurse Jeffrey, a spin-off of ''House, M.D.''