Humanverse

Jenaro vs Jennifer

American parents have registered 1,476,540 Jennifers since 1880, against 684 Jenaros. Jennifer is still ahead, with 501 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Jenaro against Jennifer, 1880 to 2025 0 20k 40k 60k 80k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Jenaro Jennifer

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 107 years in which either name was published, Jennifer for 105 years and Jenaro for 2 years. The lead changed hands 3 times.

Side by side

  Jenaro Jennifer
Total US births 6841,476,540
Most in one year 1763,790
Babies in 2025 9501
Estimated living today 5601.4 million
Median age today 3446
Peak year 19911972
Best rank 3,462nd boys1st girls
Rank in 2025 8,243rd586th
First recorded 19191919
Girls / boys 0 / 6841,471,703 / 4,837

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Jennifers alive today are over 46; half the Jenaros are over 34. That is 12 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Jenaro and Jennifer.