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Jennalee vs Jennie

American parents have registered 127,660 Jennies since 1880, against 721 Jennalees. Jennie is still ahead, with 79 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Jennalee 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 2010, when Jennalee had 33 and Jennie had 73.

Side by side

  Jennalee Jennie
Total US births 721127,660
Most in one year 393,119
Babies in 2025 under 579
Estimated living today 70037,000
Median age today 2555
Peak year 19871917
Best rank 2,572nd girls81st girls
Rank in 2025 unranked2,298th
First recorded 19331880
Girls / boys 721 / 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 Jennalees are over 25. That is 30 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: Jennalee and Jennie.