Meaning & Origin
Yakov is a boy's baby name of Hebrew origin, the Russian and Eastern European form of Jacob, from Hebrew Ya'akov, meaning 'supplanter' or 'he who follows at the heel.'
The standard form of Jacob in Russian and Eastern European Jewish tradition, Yakov connects directly to the Hebrew patriarch — son of Isaac, father of the twelve tribes of Israel, the one who wrestled with God and was renamed Israel. The Y spelling preserves the original Hebrew sound more closely than the anglicized Jacob.