Jennilyn
A feminine name derived from a combination of Jennifer and Lynn.
Name Census estimates that about 319 living Americans carry the first name Jennilyn. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Jennilyn today is around 39 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jennilyn births was 1983 (21 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jennilyn. 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
319
~ 1 in 1,074,465 Americans
Peak year
1983
21 babies that year
Average age
39
years old
2021 SSA rank
#12,764
Tracked since 1966
Census
Jennilyn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 510 people with the first name Jennilyn, which placed it at #20,297 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
#20,297
National first-name rank
People counted
510
510 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
47.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jennilyn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jennilyn is White at 47.5%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (39.4%) and Hispanic (7.8%). 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 Jennilyn 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 Jennilyn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White47.5% · 242
- Asian and Pacific Islander39.4% · 201
- Hispanic or Latino7.8% · 40
- Two or more races3.5% · 18
- Black or African American1.8% · 9
Popularity
Jennilyn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jennilyn from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 126 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
Jennilyn 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 Jennilyn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jennilyns live
Origin
Meaning and history of Jennilyn
The name Jennilyn is a modern feminine name that appears to have originated as a creative combination of the names Jennifer and Jillian, both of which have English origins. It does not seem to have roots in any specific language or culture, but rather was likely created in the 20th century as a unique spin on these more common names.
While the name Jennilyn itself does not have any known historical references or appearances in ancient texts, religious scriptures, or historical records, its component names do have some notable background. The name Jennifer is derived from the Celtic name Gwenhwyfar, which was popularized in the medieval legends of King Arthur and his queen, Guinevere. Jillian, on the other hand, is thought to have originated as a medieval English form of the name Juliana, which has Latin roots and was borne by several early Christian saints.
The earliest recorded examples of the name Jennilyn are relatively recent, with the earliest known instances dating back to the mid-20th century. One of the earliest notable individuals with this name was Jennilyn Penney Mayhew, an American painter and illustrator born in 1948.
Another early bearer of the name was Jennilyn Meyerson, an American actress and voice artist born in 1955, who provided voices for various animated television shows and films in the 1980s and 1990s.
Jennilyn Griffith, an American author and journalist born in 1957, is known for her work as a travel writer and has published several books on travel destinations around the world.
In the field of sports, Jennilyn Tenorio was a Filipino volleyball player who represented her country in international competitions in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Jennilyn Sierras is a contemporary American singer and songwriter, known for her work in the country music genre, who has released several albums since the early 2000s.
While the name Jennilyn is still relatively uncommon, it has gained some popularity in recent decades, particularly in the United States, as a unique and creative combination of more traditional names.
People
Jennilyn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jennilyn 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
Jennilyn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jennilyn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 319 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jennilyn 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 1,074,465 US residents.
Is Jennilyn a common name?
We classify Jennilyn as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 340 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jennilyn most popular?
The single biggest year for Jennilyn was 1983, when 21 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jennilyn is about 39 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jennilyn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 510 people with the name Jennilyn, or 0.17 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #20,297 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 Jennilyn 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 Jennilyn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jennilyn appears almost entirely female. Of the 513 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 Jennilyn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jennilyn is White at 47.5%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (39.4%) and Hispanic (7.8%). 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 Jennilyn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jennilyn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 47.5% (242 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 Jennilyn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jennilyn a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Jennilyn 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 Jennilyn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jennilyn 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 Jennilyn 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 share the name Jennilyn?
You can see how many people share the name Jennilyn on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.