Genoveva
Feminine
In 451 Attila's army was moving toward Paris and the city was preparing to run. A woman told them to stay, and they did, and the Huns turned south to Orleans instead. Genevieve has been the patron saint of Paris ever since, and the hill she is buried on carries her name.
How old is the name Genoveva?
Genoveva first appears in US birth records in 1885 — 140 years ago. The typical Genoveva alive today was born around 1949, making them about 76 years old. About 1,400 people named Genoveva are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Genoveva most popular?
Genoveva peaked in 1894, reaching #850 nationally. Today it ranks #11932, 11,082 places below that high. See the whole 1894 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Genovefa to Genoveva
The story of Genoveva
The Attila story is the one everyone knows, and it is not the only thing recorded about her: she organized grain convoys through a siege a few years later and was, by the account written within living memory of her, a considerable administrator. Paris kept her. The name went across Europe and picked up a second and quite separate story on the way — Genoveva of Brabant, a medieval legend of a wife falsely accused of adultery, exiled into a forest, and kept alive with her child by a doe until her husband finds them. That tale was enormously popular in Germany and Spain, was printed as a chapbook for centuries, and is the reason the Spanish and German forms of the name spread as widely as they did.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established
The name is Germanic or Gaulish and its elements have never been settled. A compound of a word for kin with a word for woman is the usual proposal, and a Celtic derivation has also been argued. Nothing has been demonstrated. Genoveva is the Spanish, Portuguese and German form of the same name.
How the name formed
- Genovefa
- Genevieve
- Genoveva
Related forms: Genoveva · Genoveva · Genoveva · Genevieve
Pronouncing Genoveva
heh-noh-VEH-vah
Four syllables, stress on the third, with the g said as a throat sound in Spanish. German and Portuguese use a hard g. The French Genevieve has three syllables and a soft zh at the front.
Nicknames for Genoveva
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
- 1885
- Most girls named
- 192551 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #850reached in 1894
- Change vs 2022
- −12.5%7 in 2025, from 8
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.
Genoveva in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Genoveva in Spanish — same name
- Genoveva in Portuguese — same name
- Genoveva in German — same name
- Genevieve in French — same name
Genovevas among us
people named Genoveva are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 229,610 born in 2025 was named Genoveva
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Genoveva 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
Genoveva beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Genoveva in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented fifth-century bearer with a feast day and a burial place that still exists.
- The same spelling in Spanish, Portuguese and German.
- Three short forms in genuine use rather than constructed.
- The first consonant is a throat sound in Spanish, a hard g in German and a zh in French, so three sayings compete.
- Four syllables is long and the name will be shortened by others.
- There is no established meaning, which matters if the meaning is why you chose it.
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What they receive
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Genoveva
Feminine · #11932 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Genovevas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,400 people named Genoveva are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Genoveva in 2025?
- Genoveva ranks #11932 among US girl names in 2025, with 7 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Genoveva?
- About 1 in every 229,610 US girls born in 2025 was named Genoveva — 7 in all.
- Will my child share the name Genoveva with classmates?
- Genoveva will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Genoveva
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Vina#11932 · Retta#11932 · Missouri#11932 · Iola#11932 · Eddie#11932 · Thomas#11932 · Louetta#11932 · Elvina#11932
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Genoveva? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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