Chenita
A feminine name of Portuguese origin meaning "little cute one".
Name Census estimates that about 331 living Americans carry the first name Chenita. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Chenita today is around 53 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Chenita births was 1975 (26 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Chenita. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
331
~ 1 in 1,035,512 Americans
Peak year
1975
26 babies that year
Average age
53
years old
1991 SSA rank
#11,793
Tracked since 1953
Census
Chenita in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 329 people with the first name Chenita, which placed it at #27,678 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#27,678
National first-name rank
People counted
329
329 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
92.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Chenita
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Chenita is Black at 92.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.3%) and White (1.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Chenita described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Chenita at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American92.4% · 304
- Two or more races4.3% · 14
- White1.5% · 5
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 4
- Hispanic or Latino0.6% · 2
Popularity
Chenita: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Chenita from the 1950s through to the 1990s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 154 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Chenita by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Chenita during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Chenitas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Chenita
The name Chenita has its origins in the Arabic language and culture. It is derived from the Arabic word "chenab," which means "jasmine flower." The name likely emerged in the Middle East during the medieval period, possibly in regions such as Persia or the Arabian Peninsula.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Chenita can be traced back to the 11th century. In a historical text from that time, there is a reference to a woman named Chenita who was a renowned poet and scholar in the city of Isfahan, located in modern-day Iran.
In the 13th century, a famous Islamic mystic and Sufi philosopher named Chenita al-Baghdadi lived in Baghdad, Iraq. She was known for her spiritual teachings and writings, which influenced the development of Sufism in the region.
During the Ottoman Empire, which spanned from the 14th to the 20th centuries, there are records of several notable women named Chenita. One such individual was Chenita Hatun, a powerful and influential figure in the Ottoman court during the reign of Sultan Mehmed II in the 15th century.
In the 16th century, a woman named Chenita Al-Khansa was celebrated as a prominent Arabic poet and writer. Her works were widely read and admired throughout the Arab world during that time.
Another historical figure with the name Chenita was Chenita Banu, a renowned musician and composer who lived in the 17th century in the city of Lucknow, India. She was known for her contributions to the development of classical Indian music, particularly in the Hindustani tradition.
While the name Chenita may have originated in the Middle East and Arabic culture, it has since been adopted and used in various parts of the world, with some variations in spelling and pronunciation.
People
Chenita + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Chenita as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Chenita: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Chenita?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 331 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Chenita going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,035,512 US residents.
Is Chenita a common name?
We classify Chenita as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 377 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Chenita most popular?
The single biggest year for Chenita was 1975, when 26 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Chenita is about 53 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Chenita in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 329 people with the name Chenita, or 0.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #27,678 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Chenita in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Chenita?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Chenita appears almost entirely female. Of the 329 people counted with this name, 100.0% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Chenita?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Chenita is Black at 92.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.3%) and White (1.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Chenita most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Chenita in the 2020 Census, accounting for 92.4% (304 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Chenita in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Chenita a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Chenita in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Chenita still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Chenita in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Chenita can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have Chenita as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.