Jennifer
A feminine name of English origin derived from Guinevere.
Name Census estimates that about 1,340,714 living Americans carry the first name Jennifer. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Jennifer today is around 46 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jennifer births was 1972 (63,792 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jennifer. 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 Jennifer with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Jennifer is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 4,837 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1970s, recent registration numbers for Jennifer have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
1.3M
~ 1 in 256 Americans
Peak year
1972
63,792 babies that year
Average age
46
years old
2016 SSA rank
#547
Tracked since 1919
Census
Jennifer in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,331,080 people with the first name Jennifer, which placed it at #14 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
#14
National first-name rank
People counted
1.3M
1,331,080 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
440.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
77.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jennifer
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jennifer is White at 77.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (12.1%) and Black (3.6%). 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 Jennifer 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 Jennifer at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White77.4% · 1,030,049
- Hispanic or Latino12.1% · 161,566
- Black or African American3.6% · 47,629
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.4% · 44,931
- Two or more races3.1% · 40,645
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 6,260
Gender
Gender distribution for Jennifer
Out of the 1,476,028 babies given the name Jennifer since 1880, 99.7% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Jennifer as a male name
- Ranked #11,333 in 2016
- 6 male births in 2016
- Peak: 1975 (225 births)
Jennifer as a female name
- Ranked #547 in 2024
- 552 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1972 (63,602 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jennifer appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,331,077 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Jennifer: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jennifer from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 583,653 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
Jennifer 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 Jennifer during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jennifers live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Jennifer, while Wyoming, Alaska, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 28,879 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jennifer
The given name Jennifer originated from the Cornish language, a Brythonic Celtic language spoken in Cornwall, England. It is derived from the Welsh name Gwenhwyfar, which means "fair and smooth" or "white and smooth." The name was anglicized to Jennifer during the medieval period.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Jennifer appears in the Arthurian legends, where it was the name of King Arthur's wife, Guinevere. In the Welsh tale "Culhwch and Olwen," she is referred to as Gwenhwyfar. The name also appears in other medieval texts, such as the "History of the Kings of Britain" by Geoffrey of Monmouth, written in the 12th century.
The name Jennifer gained popularity in England during the 16th century, though it remained relatively uncommon until the 20th century. One of the earliest known bearers of the name Jennifer was Jennifer Gaddesden, who was born in 1539 and was a member of the English gentry.
In the 17th century, the name Jennifer appeared in several literary works, including the play "The Alchemist" by Ben Jonson (1610) and the poem "The Faerie Queene" by Edmund Spenser (1590-1596). These works helped to increase the name's visibility and familiarity among the English-speaking population.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals named Jennifer. One of the earliest was Jennifer Remington, an English actress and playwright born in 1609. Another was Jennifer Venn, a 17th-century English mathematician and logician (1638-1688). In the 18th century, Jennifer Randolph (1742-1828) was a prominent American landowner and plantation owner in Virginia.
In the 19th century, Jennifer Dill (1822-1891) was a British botanist and naturalist, while Jennifer Paston (1854-1932) was an English writer and activist. Jennifer Bevan (1890-1963) was a Welsh artist and printmaker who gained recognition for her woodcut illustrations.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Jennifer
People
Jennifer + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jennifer 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
Jennifer: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jennifer?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,340,714 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jennifer 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 256 US residents.
Is Jennifer a common name?
We classify Jennifer as "Very Common". It ranks above 100% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,476,028 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jennifer most popular?
The single biggest year for Jennifer was 1972, when 63,792 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jennifer is about 46 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jennifer in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,331,080 people with the name Jennifer, or 440.71 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14 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 Jennifer 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 Jennifer?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jennifer appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,331,077 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Jennifer?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jennifer is White at 77.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (12.1%) and Black (3.6%). 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 Jennifer most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jennifer in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.4% (1,030,049 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 Jennifer in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jennifer a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Jennifer 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 Jennifer still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jennifer 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 Jennifer 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 Jennifer as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many people have the name Jennifer on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.