Head to head · Girls' names
Jennifer vs Mara
#586 vs #587 in 2025
Jennifer is a whisker ahead (#586 vs #587 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Jennifer is stepping back from its peak, Mara is holding its place on the charts. On momentum, Mara has the edge.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
On the charts, Jennifer leads 4 measures of 6; Mara leads 2.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1890s: Jennifer —, Mara #1278 — Mara higher
- 1910s: Jennifer #4251, Mara #2931 — Mara higher
- 1920s: Jennifer #3658, Mara #2717 — Mara higher
- 1930s: Jennifer #1272, Mara #2299 — Jennifer higher
- 1940s: Jennifer #325, Mara #1539 — Jennifer higher
- 1950s: Jennifer #101, Mara #812 — Jennifer higher
- 1960s: Jennifer #26, Mara #731 — Jennifer higher
- 1970s: Jennifer #1, Mara #632 — Jennifer higher
- 1980s: Jennifer #3, Mara #700 — Jennifer higher
- 1990s: Jennifer #16, Mara #596 — Jennifer higher
- 2000s: Jennifer #50, Mara #678 — Jennifer higher
- 2010s: Jennifer #240, Mara #737 — Jennifer higher
- 2020s: Jennifer #513, Mara #590 — Jennifer higher
Jennifer stood higher in 10 of 13 decades; Jennifer has held the lead since the 1930s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Jennifer | Mara |
|---|---|---|
| 1890s | — | #1278 |
| 1910s | #4251 | #2931 |
| 1920s | #3658 | #2717 |
| 1930s | #1272 | #2299 |
| 1940s | #325 | #1539 |
| 1950s | #101 | #812 |
| 1960s | #26 | #731 |
| 1970s | #1 | #632 |
| 1980s | #3 | #700 |
| 1990s | #16 | #596 |
| 2000s | #50 | #678 |
| 2010s | #240 | #737 |
| 2020s | #513 | #590 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Jennifer
white phantom; fair one
Welsh Gwenhwyfar joins gwen — white, fair or blessed — with a second element usually read as a phantom or smooth spirit, so a white apparition. The reading is traditional and not fully secure. Cornish kept the name as Jenifer while Welsh let it fall out of use, and Jennifer descends from that Cornish survival rather than directly from the Welsh.
Gwenhwyfar → Jenifer → Jennifer
How it traveled
Guinevere was effectively unusable as a name for centuries because of what the Arthurian stories say about her. Cornwall kept a form of it going quietly.
Mara
Either "bitter" in Hebrew, or a short form of Maria
Two serious readings sit side by side. In Hebrew, mara/marah means bitter — in Ruth 1:20 the widowed Naomi tells the women of Bethlehem to call her Mara instead of Naomi. Quite separately, Mara is the ordinary clipped form of Marija/Maria in the South Slavic languages, Hungarian, Romanian and Italian, and there the meaning is simply whatever Maria means, itself unsettled ground. Neither road borrowed from the other; they simply arrived at the same four letters.
Miryam → Maria → Marija → Mara
How it traveled
The oldest documented appearance is scriptural: in the first chapter of the Book of Ruth, Naomi comes home to Bethlehem after burying her husband and sons and asks to be called Mara, bitter, instead of Naomi, pleasant. That verse kept the form in print through every English Bible for centuries.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Jennifer
JEN-uh-fur
JEN-uh-fur, three syllables, stress at the front, the middle reduced. The Welsh Gwenhwyfar is four syllables and shares almost no sounds with it; the Cornish form is the bridge between them.
- Jen — The front clipped, and a complete working name; what most Jennifers go by.
- Jenny — The same softened, and a standing name of its own with centuries of English use.
- Fifer — Built from the back of the name, which is rare and belongs to families rather than to strangers.
Mara
MAH-rah
MAH-rah is the usual American reading, with the first syllable like the start of "marble". Some families say MARR-ah, rhyming the first part with "marry", and both are established. Worth deciding early, because strangers will guess either one.
- Mara — In South Slavic, Hungarian and Romanian usage Mara is itself the nickname, standing in for a formal Marija or Maria; in American records it is the full given name.
- Mar — Informal clipping used mainly by family and close friends; not used as a given name on its own.
- Mars — An informal, playful shortening heard among younger speakers; does not appear as a standalone given name for girls.
- Marica — Croatian diminutive built on Mara, formal only in the sense that it is registered as a given name in its own right there.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Jennifer if you want…
- a name past its most crowded yearsJennifer is stepping back from its peak
- a name with more sound in itJennifer runs 3 syllables, Mara 2
Choose Mara if you want…
- a name on the way upup 39 places on the charts in five years
- a name with fewer syllablesMara is 2 syllables to Jennifer's 3
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Jennifer
Strengths
- It descends from a genuinely ancient Welsh name with a documented literary figure behind it.
- Jen and Jenny are both complete short forms in different registers.
- The spelling is completely settled, which a name of this size very rarely manages.
To consider
- An enormous number of people carry it, and a Jennifer of a certain age will almost never be the only one in a room.
- It is very strongly tied to one American generation and dates a person about as precisely as a name can.
- Jen arrives immediately and the full name is rarely used.
Mara
Strengths
- Short, phonetic and spelled the way it is written — most people get it right on the first try, in writing and aloud.
- The same four letters work unchanged in Croatian, Hungarian, Romanian and Italian, which makes it easy across families and borders.
- A documented record reaching back to the Book of Ruth, and unbroken use in American records for well over a century.
To consider
- Two live pronunciations, MAH-rah and MARR-ah, mean a lifetime of gentle correcting for whichever one you choose.
- It sits close to Maria, Marah, Maura, Mira and Sara, so expect the occasional misheard or mistyped version — especially over the phone.
- If the Hebrew reading matters to you, know that in Ruth the word is chosen precisely to mean bitter; many families are drawn to the passage anyway, for Naomi's honesty rather than her grief.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Jennifer and Mara in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
Still torn between Jennifer and Mara?
Put both to the vote.
One link to your partner, your parents, your sister. Each of them gets the two names, a one-tap answer and room to say why — and every reply lands in one place.
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More than two in the running? Settle it with a bracket or run the full comparison with your last name.
More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists these names appear on
- Every #1 name in American history
- The top-10 club: every name that made it
- Classics hiding in plain sight
- Generation X names (born 1965–1980)
- all guides
Where Jennifer and Mara each sit in the library — alternatives in the same style, ranked by the same records.
Jennifer or Mara — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Jennifer or Mara?
- Jennifer, in 2025: Jennifer ranked #586 with 501 babies; Mara ranked #587 with 499 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Jennifer or Mara?
- Mara. Over the last five years Jennifer moved down 155 places; Mara moved up 39 places.
- Which is the older name, Jennifer or Mara?
- Jennifer entered the US charts in 1919; Mara entered the US charts in 1892. On the American record, Mara is the older name.
- How many people are named Jennifer and Mara?
- About 1,402,000 people named Jennifer are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 23,000 people named Mara are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Jennifers or Maras in the classroom?
- Jennifer will almost certainly be the only one in school. Mara will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
Keep playing
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