Jennings
A masculine English name derived from the place name "Jenynges", meaning "at the valley meadows".
Name Census estimates that about 2,643 living Americans carry the first name Jennings. It is a predominantly male name (94.1% of registrations). The average person named Jennings today is around 37 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jennings births was 2021 (116 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jennings. 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
2.6K
~ 1 in 129,684 Americans
Peak year
2021
116 babies that year
Average age
37
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,957
Tracked since 1892
Census
Jennings in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,225 people with the first name Jennings, which placed it at #7,005 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
#7,005
National first-name rank
People counted
2.2K
2,225 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
88.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jennings
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jennings is White at 88.4%. The next largest groups are Black (4.1%) and Two or More Races (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 Jennings 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 Jennings at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White88.4% · 1,966
- Black or African American4.1% · 92
- Two or more races3.6% · 80
- Hispanic or Latino2.0% · 45
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 22
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 20
Gender
Gender distribution for Jennings
Jennings leans heavily male at 94.1% of total registrations, but 298 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Jennings as a male name
- Ranked #1,957 in 2024
- 80 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1926 (113 births)
Jennings as a female name
- Ranked #5,195 in 2024
- 25 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (26 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jennings leans strongly male. 1,943 people counted with this name were male (87.3%), compared with 282 female bearers (12.7%).
Popularity
Jennings: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jennings from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 893 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Jennings remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jennings 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 Jennings during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jennings' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 18 states and territories. West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina recorded the most babies named Jennings, while Pennsylvania, Missouri, Illinois recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 97 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jennings
The given name Jennings is an English surname that originated as a patronymic name, derived from the personal name Jenyn, which itself is a medieval diminutive form of the name John. The name John traces its roots back to the Hebrew name Yohanan, meaning "Graced by God" or "Yahweh is gracious."
The earliest recorded use of the name Jennings can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as "Jenninges." This suggests that the name was already in use in England during the late 11th century, likely carried by some of the Norman settlers who arrived after the Norman Conquest of 1066.
In the medieval period, the name Jennings was primarily associated with the landed gentry and upper classes of English society. One notable historical figure who bore this name was Sir John Jennings (c. 1370-1429), a Member of Parliament and Sheriff of Somerset during the reign of King Henry VI.
Another significant bearer of the name was Admiral Sir John Jennings (1655-1743), a renowned English naval officer who served in the Royal Navy during the late 17th and early 18th centuries. He played a crucial role in several naval engagements, including the Battle of Vigo Bay in 1702 and the capture of Gibraltar in 1704.
In the literary world, the name Jennings is perhaps most famously associated with the character of Amanda Jennings, a recurring character in the popular Regency romance novels of Georgette Heyer (1902-1974). Amanda Jennings was portrayed as a spirited and independent young woman who frequently found herself embroiled in romantic adventures and social scandals.
Other notable historical figures with the given name Jennings include Sir Robert Jennings (1646-1718), an English judge and politician who served as Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and Hilda Jennings (1875-1950), a pioneering English social reformer and activist who fought for women's rights and the improvement of working conditions for factory workers.
While the name Jennings has its origins in England, it has since spread to other parts of the English-speaking world, including the United States, Canada, and Australia, where it continues to be used as both a given name and a surname.
People
Jennings + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jennings 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
Jennings: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jennings?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,643 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jennings 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 129,684 US residents.
Is Jennings a common name?
We classify Jennings as "Rare". It ranks above 94.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,090 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jennings most popular?
The single biggest year for Jennings was 2021, when 116 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jennings is about 37 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jennings in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,225 people with the name Jennings, or 0.74 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,005 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 Jennings 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 Jennings?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jennings leans strongly male. 1,943 people counted with this name were male (87.3%), compared with 282 female bearers (12.7%). 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 Jennings?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jennings is White at 88.4%. The next largest groups are Black (4.1%) and Two or More Races (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 Jennings most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jennings in the 2020 Census, accounting for 88.4% (1,966 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 Jennings in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jennings a male name?
Yes, 94.1% of people registered as Jennings in the SSA data are male. 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 Jennings still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jennings 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 Jennings 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 Jennings?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.