Jenevieve
A feminine name of French origin meaning "white wave".
Name Census estimates that about 1,634 living Americans carry the first name Jenevieve. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Jenevieve today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jenevieve births was 2023 (89 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jenevieve. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Jenevieve with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Jenevieve is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 17 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.6K
~ 1 in 209,764 Americans
Peak year
2023
89 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,485
Tracked since 1914
Census
Jenevieve in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,257 people with the first name Jenevieve, which placed it at #10,545 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
#10,545
National first-name rank
People counted
1.3K
1,257 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
50.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jenevieve
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jenevieve is White at 50.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (28.0%) and Two or More Races (7.2%). 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 Jenevieve 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 Jenevieve at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White50.6% · 636
- Hispanic or Latino28.0% · 352
- Two or more races7.2% · 91
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.9% · 87
- Black or African American6.4% · 80
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 11
Popularity
Jenevieve: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jenevieve from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 643 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Jenevieve remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jenevieve 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 Jenevieve during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jenevieves live
The SSA's state-level files cover 10 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Jenevieve, while Utah, Missouri, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 59 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jenevieve
The name Jenevieve is a French variation of the medieval name Genovefa, which originated from the Germanic words "keno" meaning "kin" or "race" and "wefa" meaning "weaver" or "maker." The name was first recorded in Gaul, an ancient region that covered modern-day France, during the 5th century AD.
Jenevieve gained widespread recognition due to the legendary Saint Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris, who lived from approximately 420-512 AD. According to Catholic tradition, Genevieve played a crucial role in defending Paris from the Huns led by Attila the Hun. Her courage and faith were said to have inspired the people of Paris during this time of crisis.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Jenevieve appears in the "Vita Sanctae Genovefae" (Life of Saint Genevieve), a 6th-century text that recounts the life and miracles of the saint. This text contributed significantly to the popularity of the name in France and its subsequent spread throughout Western Europe.
In the Middle Ages, Jenevieve became a popular name among French nobility. One notable figure was Jenevieve de Brabant (c. 1130-1183), a Countess of Flanders who was known for her piety and charitable works.
During the Renaissance period, the name Jenevieve was used by several notable women, including Jenevieve de Bourbon (1510-1537), a French noblewoman and the wife of King Louis XII of France.
Other historical figures with the name Jenevieve include Jenevieve Garces (1776-1834), a Spanish-American explorer and diarist who documented her travels through what is now the southwestern United States, and Jenevieve Hahnemann (1798-1878), the wife of the renowned German physician and founder of homeopathy, Samuel Hahnemann.
In the 19th century, the French novelist and playwright Jenevieve Mallat (1825-1909) gained recognition for her works exploring social issues and the role of women in society.
People
Jenevieve + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jenevieve as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with J
Other first names starting with J with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Jenevieve: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jenevieve?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,634 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jenevieve 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 209,764 US residents.
Is Jenevieve a common name?
We classify Jenevieve as "Rare". It ranks above 92.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,768 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jenevieve most popular?
The single biggest year for Jenevieve was 2023, when 89 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jenevieve is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jenevieve in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,257 people with the name Jenevieve, or 0.42 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,545 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 Jenevieve 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 Jenevieve?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jenevieve appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,266 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Jenevieve?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jenevieve is White at 50.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (28.0%) and Two or More Races (7.2%). 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 Jenevieve most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jenevieve in the 2020 Census, accounting for 50.6% (636 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 Jenevieve in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jenevieve a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Jenevieve 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 Jenevieve still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jenevieve 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 Jenevieve 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 are named Jenevieve?
Find out how many people have the name Jenevieve on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.