Humanverse

Jenea vs Jenny

American parents have registered 92,706 Jennys since 1880, against 810 Jeneas. Jenny is still ahead, with 142 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Jenea against Jenny, 1880 to 2025 0 800 1.6k 2.4k 3.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Jenea Jenny

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

Jenny has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2005, when Jenea had 18 and Jenny had 613.

Side by side

  Jenea Jenny
Total US births 81092,706
Most in one year 522,700
Babies in 2025 under 5142
Estimated living today 79081,000
Median age today 3746
Peak year 19841977
Best rank 1,961st girls108th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked1,500th
First recorded 19661880
Girls / boys 810 / 092,101 / 605

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 Jennys alive today are over 46; half the Jeneas are over 37. That is 9 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: Jenea and Jenny.