Jennet
A feminine diminutive form of Jane or Janet, derived from Jean.
Name Census estimates that about 113 living Americans carry the first name Jennet. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Jennet today is around 51 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jennet births was 1975 (9 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jennet. 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
113
~ 1 in 3,033,224 Americans
Peak year
1975
9 babies that year
Average age
51
years old
2010 SSA rank
#15,842
Tracked since 1920
Census
Jennet in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 509 people with the first name Jennet, which placed it at #20,333 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
#20,333
National first-name rank
People counted
509
509 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
41.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jennet
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jennet is White at 41.8%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (21.8%) and Black (15.7%). 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 Jennet 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 Jennet at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White41.8% · 213
- Asian and Pacific Islander21.8% · 111
- Black or African American15.7% · 80
- Hispanic or Latino14.3% · 73
- Two or more races5.3% · 27
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 5
Popularity
Jennet: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jennet from the 1920s through to the 2010s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 34 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jennet 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 Jennet during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jennet
Jennet is a feminine given name of English origin, derived from the French name Jennette, which is a diminutive form of the name Jeanne. Jeanne, in turn, is the French form of the Hebrew name Johanna, meaning "God is gracious." The name Jennet emerged in medieval England during the 12th century.
The name Jennet has its roots in the biblical name Johanna, which was the name of a woman mentioned in the New Testament as one of the women who followed Jesus and witnessed his crucifixion and resurrection. This connection to the biblical figure may have contributed to the name's popularity in Christian communities during the Middle Ages.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Jennet can be found in the Domesday Book, a great survey of England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The book mentions a woman named Jennet who held land in Gloucestershire.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Jennet. One of the most famous was Jennet Geddes (c. 1590-c. 1660), a Scottish Presbyterian who is credited with sparking the religious conflicts known as the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. In 1637, she allegedly threw a stool at the head of a minister during a church service in protest against the imposition of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer.
Another notable Jennet was Jennet Clason (c. 1600-1677), a Dutch settler in New Netherland (present-day New York) who became one of the first female landowners in the colony. She acquired a substantial amount of land through her marriages and business dealings.
In the literary world, Jennet Jourdemayne was a fictional character in Sir Walter Scott's novel "The Monastery" (1820). She was portrayed as a young woman with supernatural powers who played a pivotal role in the story's plot.
During the 16th and 17th centuries, the name Jennet was also found in various legal and historical records in England and Scotland, indicating its continued use among the general population.
People
Jennet + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jennet 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
Jennet: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jennet?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 113 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jennet 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 3,033,224 US residents.
Is Jennet a common name?
We classify Jennet as "Very Rare". It ranks above 66.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 166 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jennet most popular?
The single biggest year for Jennet was 1975, when 9 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jennet is about 51 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jennet in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 509 people with the name Jennet, or 0.17 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #20,333 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 Jennet 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 Jennet?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jennet appears almost entirely female. Of the 506 people counted with this name, 99.4% 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 Jennet?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jennet is White at 41.8%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (21.8%) and Black (15.7%). 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 Jennet most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jennet in the 2020 Census, accounting for 41.8% (213 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 Jennet in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jennet a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Jennet 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 Jennet still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jennet 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 Jennet 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 Jennet as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.