Humanverse

Jennett vs Jennie

American parents have registered 127,660 Jennies since 1880, against 595 Jennetts. Jennie is still ahead, with 79 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Jennett 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 1940, when Jennett had 17 and Jennie had 667.

Side by side

  Jennett Jennie
Total US births 595127,660
Most in one year 173,119
Babies in 2025 under 579
Estimated living today 29037,000
Median age today 6055
Peak year 19201917
Best rank 2,172nd girls81st girls
Rank in 2025 unranked2,298th
First recorded 18921880
Girls / boys 595 / 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 Jennetts alive today are over 60; half the Jennies are over 55. That is 5 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: Jennett and Jennie.