Genise
Feminine
Genise is a respelling that changes the first letter of a name and, in doing so, makes it look like it belongs to a different family altogether. One consonant is all it takes to move a name from the god of wine to the first book of the Bible, at least in appearance.
How old is the name Genise?
Genise first appears in US birth records in 1946 — 79 years ago. The typical Genise alive today was born around 1970, making them about 55 years old. About 800 people named Genise are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Genise most popular?
Genise peaked in 1960, reaching #1811 nationally. See the whole 1960 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Genise
The letters gen do carry a genuine family of meaning in English, and it is one of the richest in the language. The Latin root is about birth and begetting: it gives genus and generate, gender and genital, generous — which once meant well-born — and genius, which began as the spirit attending a person from birth and only later came to mean an unusual mind. Genesis is the same root, borrowed through Greek, and means a beginning or a coming-into-being. None of that is this name's history. But a name lives partly in what people think when they see it, and a spelling that puts a child in the neighborhood of beginnings and birth is not a bad place to be standing, even by accident.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The name behind it is Denise, the French feminine of a name built on Dionysos, and that would give a meaning of sorts. But the G spelling has been in the record long enough to be its own name, and there is no evidence that the families using it were thinking of the French one. What it is not is a form of Genesis: the resemblance is produced entirely by the letter swap.
Pronouncing Genise
juh-NEESE
Two syllables with the stress at the back and a soft s at the end. The g is soft because it stands before an e, which is the one reliable rule English has about that letter.
Nicknames for Genise
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1946
- Most girls named
- 196039 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1811reached in 1960
- Change vs 2008
- 0.0%5 in 2009, from 5
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Genises among us
people named Genise are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Genise sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- The back stress gives it a strong finish and resists shortening.
- It is rare while every sound in it is familiar.
- The spelling is phonetic enough to survive being read aloud cold.
- Denise is the name most people will hear, and they will write it.
- The final sound is ambiguous on paper between an s and a z until she says it.
- The resemblance to Genesis will be offered to her as an origin, and it is not one.
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Genise
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Genises are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Genise are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Genise in 2025?
- Genise is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Genise with classmates?
- Genise will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More G names
The most-given names starting with G, all years combined.
Grace#38 · Gloria#654 · Gladys#3211 · Geraldine#2438 · Gail#8362 · Gertrude#6546 · Georgia#99 · Gina#2076
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Genise? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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