Humanverse

Jeneva vs Jennie

American parents have registered 127,660 Jennies since 1880, against 1,073 Jenevas. Jennie is still ahead, with 79 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Jeneva Jennie

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

Jennie 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 2016, when Jeneva had 20 and Jennie had 49.

Side by side

  Jeneva Jennie
Total US births 1,073127,660
Most in one year 293,119
Babies in 2025 1779
Estimated living today 79037,000
Median age today 2955
Peak year 19261917
Best rank 1,514th girls81st girls
Rank in 2025 6,546th2,298th
First recorded 19051880
Girls / boys 1,073 / 0127,181 / 479

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 Jennies alive today are over 55; half the Jenevas are over 29. That is 26 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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