Jennah
Variant of Jenna, a feminine name derived from Jane or Jean meaning "God is gracious".
Name Census estimates that about 3,017 living Americans carry the first name Jennah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Jennah today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jennah births was 2002 (135 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jennah. 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 Jennah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.0K
~ 1 in 113,608 Americans
Peak year
2002
135 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,933
Tracked since 1974
Census
Jennah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,509 people with the first name Jennah, which placed it at #6,407 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
#6,407
National first-name rank
People counted
2.5K
2,509 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
65.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jennah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jennah is White at 65.5%. The next largest groups are Black (12.0%) and Hispanic (9.8%). 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 Jennah 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 Jennah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White65.5% · 1,644
- Black or African American12.0% · 301
- Hispanic or Latino9.8% · 247
- Two or more races7.2% · 181
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.0% · 126
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 10
Popularity
Jennah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jennah from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 1,041 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jennah 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 Jennah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jennahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 17 states and territories. California, Pennsylvania, New York recorded the most babies named Jennah, while Washington, Missouri, Maryland recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 83 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jennah
The name Jennah is believed to have its origins in the Arabic language, with its roots tracing back to the 7th century AD. It is derived from the Arabic word "jannah," which translates to "paradise" or "garden." This connection to a heavenly paradise suggests that the name was initially given to children as a wish for them to lead a blessed and fulfilling life.
In Islamic tradition, the concept of "jannah" holds great significance, as it refers to the eternal gardens of paradise promised to the righteous in the afterlife. The name Jennah may have been inspired by the descriptions of these heavenly gardens found in the Quran, the central religious text of Islam.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Jennah can be found in the works of medieval Arabic scholars and poets. For example, the renowned 9th-century poet and philosopher, Abu Tammam, made reference to a woman named Jennah in his poetic anthology titled "Al-Hamasah."
Throughout history, the name Jennah has been borne by several notable individuals. One such figure was Jennah bint al-Hakam, a 7th-century woman from Medina who was known for her wisdom and her role in preserving the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad.
In the 12th century, Jennah al-Dimashqi was a renowned female scholar from Damascus who made significant contributions to the fields of Islamic jurisprudence and hadith studies.
During the Ottoman Empire, Jennah Khanum was a prominent figure in the 16th century, known for her patronage of the arts and her influence in the imperial court of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent.
In more recent times, Jennah Abou Barzak (1914-2003) was a Syrian writer and activist who played a pivotal role in promoting women's rights and education in the Arab world.
Jennah Ismail (1954-2019) was a Malaysian writer and academic who received numerous accolades for her literary works, including the prestigious S.E.A. Write Award.
While the name Jennah may have originated in the Arabic language and culture, it has since been adopted and embraced by various communities around the world, each adding their own unique cultural interpretations and connotations to its meaning.
People
Jennah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jennah 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
Jennah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jennah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,017 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jennah 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 113,608 US residents.
Is Jennah a common name?
We classify Jennah as "Rare". It ranks above 95.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,081 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jennah most popular?
The single biggest year for Jennah was 2002, when 135 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jennah is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jennah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,509 people with the name Jennah, or 0.83 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,407 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 Jennah 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 Jennah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jennah appears almost entirely female. Of the 2,513 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Jennah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jennah is White at 65.5%. The next largest groups are Black (12.0%) and Hispanic (9.8%). 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 Jennah most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jennah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 65.5% (1,644 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 Jennah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jennah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Jennah 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 Jennah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jennah 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 Jennah 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 Americans are named Jennah?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.