American nickname, likely short for Jebediah, a Hebrew name meaning beloved friend of God.
Jeb began its life as an American frontier abbreviation of Jebediah — from the Hebrew Yedidyah, meaning "beloved of God" or "friend of the Lord." Jebediah itself was a Puritan-era given name, belonging to the category of Hebrew Old Testament names that early American colonists favored for their theological weight and scriptural authenticity. As American culture moved westward through the nineteenth century, longer names were cheerfully compressed: Jebediah became Jeb, Abraham became Abe, Jeremiah became Jerry.
The shortened form carried all the character with half the syllables. B. Stuart — James Ewell Brown Stuart — the flamboyant Confederate cavalry commander whose daring raids and plumed hat made him one of the most colorful figures of the American Civil War.
Stuart's nickname "Jeb" transformed what might have been a minor colloquial variant into a name with genuine martial and romantic associations. It became embedded in the American South as a name that honored heritage while projecting vigor and independence. Jeb has functioned in American culture as a shorthand for a certain kind of plainspoken, unaffected Americanness — the name of a man who says what he means and works with his hands.
It appeared as character names in Westerns, political dynasties, and rural fiction throughout the twentieth century. In the twenty-first century it carries a warm retro quality: short enough for any era, distinct enough to be remembered, and grounded in a specifically American tradition of linguistic economy and frontier directness.