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It isn't regional; it's linguistic and ethnic. Typically, translated from Hebrew or Yiddish it will be Yakov (you've got Yaakov on this site). Jakob is derived from this, then we come to Jacob. These are phonetic transliterations. Perhaps you see more people called/spelled Jakob in certain regions where Hebrew or Yiddish is spoken more often than English, but that doesn't make it a regional variant. If you were to look at Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn, NY, you may encounter more Jakobs or Yakovs than you would Jacobs. These are ethnic and linguistic distinctions - Brooklyn is an *English*-speaking borough.