Gennaro
Masculine · “of January”
Gennaro belongs to Naples more completely than almost any name belongs to a city. Its bearer is the patron saint, a bishop killed in the early fourth century, whose dried blood is brought out three times a year in a glass ampoule and, most years, becomes liquid again in front of a packed cathedral. The name means January.
How old is the name Gennaro?
Gennaro first appears in US birth records in 1904 — 121 years ago. The typical Gennaro alive today was born around 1961, making them about 64 years old. About 1,500 people named Gennaro are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Gennaro most popular?
Gennaro peaked in 1913, reaching #897 nationally. Today it ranks #4857, 3,960 places below that high. See the whole 1913 chart.
Where it comes from
From Januarius to Gennaro
The story of Gennaro
Januarius was bishop of Benevento and was executed near Pozzuoli during the persecutions at the start of the fourth century. Naples took him as its own, and the liquefaction of the relic became one of the most-watched events in Italian religious life, followed closely enough that failures are treated as omens for the city. The name has been ordinary in Naples and Campania for a thousand years and rare outside them. It came to American records with Neapolitan families and was often anglicized to Jerry within a generation.
Meaning
of January; of Janus
Latin Januarius, the month, which takes its own name from Janus, the two-faced god of doorways and beginnings. Roman families used month names as personal names freely, and this is one that survived.
How the name formed
- Januarius
- Gennaro
Related forms: Genaro · Januarius · Januário · Jennaro
Pronouncing Gennaro
jen-NAH-roh
Three syllables, stress in the middle, the double n held slightly. The g is soft, as in gem.
Nicknames for Gennaro
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
- 1904
- Most boys named
- 192037 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #897reached in 1913
- Change vs 2023
- −16.7%20 in 2025, from 24
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.
Gennaro in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Genaro in Spanish — same name
- Januarius in Latin — same name
- Januário in Portuguese — same name
- Jennaro in Neapolitan — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, Florida, California.
Gennaros among us
people named Gennaro are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 85,404 born in 2025 was named Gennaro
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Gennaro
- #4857
- Gennaro on the 2025 chart
- #846
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Gennaro went to 20 boys in 2025, but Genaro is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 82, which makes it the 846th most-given boys’ name of the year — 4,011 places above the chart.
- Genaro62
- Gennaro20
About 1 boy in 20,830 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 85,404 for Gennaro itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Gennaro sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Gennaro beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Gennaro in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It carries a saint, a city and a month at once, and the story is easy to tell.
- It is unmistakably Neapolitan, which for families from Naples is the whole point.
- The vowels are open and the stress is obvious, so English speakers manage it quickly.
- Outside Italian communities almost nobody will have met it, so it gets spelled out constantly.
- American families have historically replaced it with Jerry, which loses the connection entirely.
- Genaro with one n is the Spanish spelling, and the two get confused.
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Gennaro
Masculine · #4857 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Gennaros are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,500 people named Gennaro are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Gennaro?
- Gennaro is one of 2 recorded spellings. Genaro is the more common one — 62 births in 2025 against 20 for Gennaro.
- How popular is the name Gennaro in 2025?
- Gennaro ranks #4857 among US boy names in 2025, with 20 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Gennaro?
- About 1 in every 85,404 US boys born in 2025 was named Gennaro — 20 in all.
- Will my child share the name Gennaro with classmates?
- Gennaro will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Gennaro
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Carlyle#4857 · Russ#4857 · Hercules#4857 · Marcial#4857 · Lauro#4857 · Marin#4857 · Gil#4857 · Aloysius#4857
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Gennaro? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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