Jinny
A feminine diminutive of the name Jane or Jennifer of English origin.
Name Census estimates that about 690 living Americans carry the first name Jinny. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Jinny today is around 49 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jinny births was 1977 (27 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jinny. 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
690
~ 1 in 496,745 Americans
Peak year
1977
27 babies that year
Average age
49
years old
2024 SSA rank
#14,208
Tracked since 1940
Popularity
Jinny: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jinny from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 183 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
Jinny 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 Jinny during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jinnys live
Origin
Meaning and history of Jinny
The name Jinny is a diminutive form of the name Jennifer, derived from the Welsh name Gwenhwyfar. Gwenhwyfar is composed of the elements gwen, meaning "fair, white, blessed," and hwyfar, meaning "smooth, soft." The name Jinny emerged as a shortened form of Jennifer in the 17th century.
In ancient Welsh mythology, Gwenhwyfar was the name of King Arthur's wife, often anglicized as Guinevere. The name appears in various medieval literary works, such as the Historia Regum Britanniae by Geoffrey of Monmouth and the Arthurian romances.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Jinny can be found in the writings of Samuel Pepys, an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament. In his famous diary, he mentions a woman named Jinny in an entry dated January 1, 1667.
Notable historical figures named Jinny include Jinny Bevan (1698-1725), an English murderer who was executed for killing her husband. Jinny Wilkinson (1737-1798) was an English Methodist preacher and one of the first women to be officially recognized as a preacher by the Methodist Church.
Another famous bearer of the name was Jinny Hamilton (1765-1846), an Irish writer and poet. Her collection of poems, "The Munster Cottage Boy," was published in 1786 and gained her significant recognition during her lifetime.
In the United States, Jinny Lind Mulock (1828-1888) was a prominent educator and women's rights advocate. She founded the Jinny Lind Free Kindergarten in San Francisco, one of the first kindergartens in California, and was a pioneer in promoting early childhood education.
Jinny Wren (1881-1968) was an English stage actress and comedian, known for her performances in West End musicals and revues during the early 20th century. She was particularly famous for her role in the musical comedy "The Bing Boys Are Here" in 1916.
People
Jinny + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jinny 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
Jinny: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jinny?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 690 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jinny 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 496,745 US residents.
Is Jinny a common name?
We classify Jinny as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 821 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jinny most popular?
The single biggest year for Jinny was 1977, when 27 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jinny is about 49 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Jinny a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Jinny 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.
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.