Humanverse

Jenna vs Jennalyn

American parents have registered 148,842 Jennas since 1880, against 505 Jennalyns. Jenna is still ahead, with 418 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Jenna Jennalyn

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 2025, when Jenna had 418 and Jennalyn had 12.

Side by side

  Jenna Jennalyn
Total US births 148,842505
Most in one year 6,45425
Babies in 2025 41812
Estimated living today 146,000500
Median age today 2819
Peak year 19852005
Best rank 50th girls5,113th girls
Rank in 2025 679th8,362nd
First recorded 19151982
Girls / boys 148,587 / 255505 / 0

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 Jennas alive today are over 28; half the Jennalyns are over 19. 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: Jenna and Jennalyn.