Humanverse

Jenene vs Jenny

American parents have registered 92,706 Jennys since 1880, against 543 Jenenes. Jenny is still ahead, with 142 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Jenene 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 1934, when Jenene had 7 and Jenny had 156.

Side by side

  Jenene Jenny
Total US births 54392,706
Most in one year 242,700
Babies in 2025 under 5142
Estimated living today 46081,000
Median age today 5646
Peak year 19601977
Best rank 2,432nd girls108th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked1,500th
First recorded 19341880
Girls / boys 543 / 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 Jenenes alive today are over 56; half the Jennys are over 46. That is 10 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: Jenene and Jenny.