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Jens

#5,296 in 2025Boys' name

Yahweh is gracious, through John

Jens has been given to 2,456 babies in the U.S. since 1884. In 2025 it ranked #5,296 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1966, with 39 recorded.

Babies named Jens, 2025

1 in 184,000

Jens over time, 1880–2025

Boys
01020304018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Jens: meaning, origin, and history

Yahweh is gracious, through John

Danish and Low German

What Jens means

Jens belongs to the name family reached through Jens → John → John. Its meaning is “Yahweh is gracious”.

Origin, language, and formation

Jens is used in Danish, Dutch, Faroese, German, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish. Its origins include Danish and Low German.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include John and Johannes.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Dutch, Jens is pronounced /jɛns/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 2,456 boys were recorded with the name Jens between 1884 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 39 in 1966; its best national rank was #680 in 1884.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #4,332 in 2020 to #5,296 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #5,389 in 2015 to #5,296 in 2025.

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 Jens?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 184,000
18 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 94,900
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#5,296
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
127,662 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Jens sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

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 127,662 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Jens. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Jenss were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Jens was born before 1980 — so the typical Jens is around 45 today.

Median birth year
1980
About 45 years old
Biggest decade
1980s
13.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
24.2%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
1,898
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1980s — 13.0% of all recorded uses (319).

Is Jens 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
−809
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−964
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
+93
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.06×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
46.2%
Peak was 1966 (39)
Years since peak
59
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
17.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#680
1884

Spellings of Jens

Jens is not the most common spelling — Jesse is, with 26.9% against Jens's 0.15%.

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 Jens is used

Across 1910–2025, Jens was most concentrated in Utah — about 1 in 25,000 boys, against 1 in 173,188 across all states with data. It was least common in Wisconsin (1 in —).

04 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Utah1 in 25,000
  2. 2Minnesota1 in 50,000
  3. 3California1 in 100,000
  4. 4Iowa1 in 100,000
  5. 5Washington1 in 100,000
  6. 6Georgia1 in —
  7. 7Illinois1 in —
  8. 8New York1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys 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. Jens has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Jens around the world

Where Jens 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
    1996–2016
    #3,478
    in 2016
  • France
    1974–2016
    #6,765
    in 2016
  • Norway
    1880–2025
    #30
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1991–2023
    #2,747
    in 2023
  • South Australia
    1955–2012
    #771
    in 2012

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Norway, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. SSB, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Jens

People whose public names include Jens, 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.

Jens by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#5,296
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 964
Best rank ever
#680
1884
Peak year
1966
39 that year
First recorded
1884
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
2,456
Count in 2025
18

Names similar to Jens

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

JensonJeneJenaroJennerOwensJentryJennyJenoJensenJensynJenningsJenesisJennaJennieJenniferMarvensClemensJenilJenStevensJenoahLensAthensEvens

Names with a curve like Jens

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

LavelleLauroFelicianoCecilioNicolaEsequielDemetrioJacintoLavellCorwinCelsoRoque

Sibling names for Jens

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 Jens

Top names of 1966, Jens's peak yearThe 1960s in fullOther names that peaked in 1884Boys' names starting with JDanish Boy NamesNorwegian Boy NamesShort German Boy Names