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Jena

#5,473 in 2025Girls' name

Diminutive of Jennifer

Jena has been given to 13,248 babies in the U.S. since 1900. In 2025 it ranked #5,473 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1986, with 619 recorded.

Babies named Jena, 2025

1 in 144,000

Jena over time, 1880–2025

GirlsBoys
020040060080018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Jena: meaning, origin, and history

Diminutive of Jennifer

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Jena means

Jena is a diminutive of Jennifer.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Jena → Jennifer → *Gwɨnnohuɨβar. The family’s proposed meaning is “white”, recorded in Proto-Brythonic with the source elements gwɨnn.

Origin, language, and formation

Jena is used in English.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Jennifer and Gina.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Jena is pronounced /ˈd͡ʒɛnə/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 13,241 girls were recorded with the name Jena between 1900 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 619 in 1986; its best national rank was #371 in 1985.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #4,599 in 2020 to #5,473 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #3,072 in 2015 to #5,473 in 2025.

In the United States, 7 boys were recorded with the name Jena between 1988 and 1988. Its highest annual count was 7 in 1988; its best national rank was #6,061 in 1988.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Jena?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 144,000
23 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 69,900
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#5,473
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
99,910 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Jena sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 99,910 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Jena. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Jenas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Jena was born before 1988 — so the typical Jena is around 37 today.

Median birth year
1988
About 37 years old
Biggest decade
1980s
30.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
17.2%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
13,064
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1980s — 30.8% of all recorded uses (4,075).

Is Jena rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
+1,302
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−874
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−2,401
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.42×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
3.7%
Peak was 1986 (619)
Years since peak
39
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
17.1% average annual change
Best rank ever
#371
1985

Spellings of Jena

Jena is not the most common spelling — Anna is, with 15.3% against Jena's 0.22%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Jena is used

Across 1910–2025, Jena was most concentrated in Louisiana — about 1 in 7,692 girls, against 1 in 16,399 across all states with data. It was least common in West Virginia (1 in —).

013 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Louisiana1 in 7,692
  2. 2Minnesota1 in 8,333
  3. 3Wisconsin1 in 9,091
  4. 4Florida1 in 10,000
  5. 5Indiana1 in 11,111
  6. 6Nebraska1 in 11,111
  7. 7Iowa1 in 12,500
  8. 8Ohio1 in 12,500

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Jena has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Jena around the world

Where Jena ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2025
    #5,927
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    1985–2009
    #783
    in 2009
  • Northern Ireland
    1997–2008
    #439
    in 2008
  • Ireland
    1980–2008
    #862
    in 2008
  • France
    1985–2025
    #1,406
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #3,027
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1964–2006
    #782
    in 2006

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS, NISRA data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Jena

People whose public names include Jena, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Jena in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Jena. Linked forms have their own page here.

GenaJenna

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Jena by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#5,473
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 874
Best rank ever
#371
1985
Peak year
1986
619 that year
First recorded
1900
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
13,241
Count in 2025
23

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#6,061
1988
Peak year
1988
7 that year
First recorded
1988
Last recorded
1988
All-time count
7
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Jena

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

JenniTenaDeenaZenaJenaeDenaSienaAlenaRenaGenaXenaJennySenaJeniAleenaLeenaJenelleJeniferJennahRowenaJimenaJensenJeniseJenesis

Names with a curve like Jena

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Jena, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

JaymeCasandraJustinaRachealNikitaKristynChristenChantelRocioJesseTiffaniAlecia

Sibling names for Jena

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Jena

Top names of 1986, Jena's peak yearThe 1980s in fullOther names that peaked in 1985Girls' names starting with J