Humanverse

Jennifer vs Jensyn

American parents have registered 1,476,540 Jennifers since 1880, against 1,082 Jensyns. Jennifer is still ahead, with 501 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Jennifer against Jensyn, 1880 to 2025 0 20k 40k 60k 80k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Jennifer Jensyn

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

Jennifer has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1919 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2025, when Jennifer had 501 and Jensyn had 58.

Side by side

  Jennifer Jensyn
Total US births 1,476,5401,082
Most in one year 63,79083
Babies in 2025 50158
Estimated living today 1.4 million1,100
Median age today 468
Peak year 19722019
Best rank 1st girls2,752nd girls
Rank in 2025 586th3,459th
First recorded 19191992
Girls / boys 1,471,703 / 4,837802 / 280

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 Jennifers alive today are over 46; half the Jensyns are over 8. That is 38 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: Jennifer and Jensyn.