Humanverse

Jenean vs Jenna

American parents have registered 148,842 Jennas since 1880, against 799 Jeneans. Jenna is still ahead, with 418 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Jenean against Jenna, 1880 to 2025 0 2k 4k 6k 8k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Jenean Jenna

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

Jenna has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1915 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1960, when Jenean had 32 and Jenna had 32.

Side by side

  Jenean Jenna
Total US births 799148,842
Most in one year 326,454
Babies in 2025 under 5418
Estimated living today 680146,000
Median age today 5428
Peak year 19601985
Best rank 2,013th girls50th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked679th
First recorded 19331915
Girls / boys 799 / 0148,587 / 255

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 Jeneans alive today are over 54; half the Jennas are over 28. That is 26 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: Jenean and Jenna.