Ginny
Feminine · “of the Verginius family”
Ginny is the everyday form of Virginia and, less often, of Genevieve. It has been in American use as a name in its own right since the middle of the twentieth century.
How old is the name Ginny?
Ginny first appears in US birth records in 1918 — 107 years ago. The typical Ginny alive today was born around 1967, making them about 58 years old. About 6,700 people named Ginny are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ginny most popular?
Ginny peaked in 1958, reaching #631 nationally. Today it ranks #3249, 2,618 places below that high. See the whole 1958 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Verginia to Ginny
The story of Ginny
Virginia was the name of the first English colony in America, given for a queen, and it became one of the country's characteristic women's names in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Ginny is its short form and was in wide use by the mid-twentieth century, when it began appearing in the records under its own name. Genevieve, a Frankish name of quite separate origin, also yields Ginny in some families.
Meaningscholars disagree
of the Verginius family
Virginia is a Roman family name, Verginia, whose own derivation is unsettled; the connection to the Latin word for a maiden is a later reinterpretation rather than the source. If the parent name is Genevieve instead, the origin is Germanic and entirely different.
How the name formed
- Verginia
- Virginia
- Ginny
Related forms: Virginia · Virginia · Geneviève
Pronouncing Ginny
JIN-ee
Two syllables, first stressed. The g is soft, as in gin.
Nicknames for Ginny
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
- 1918
- Most girls named
- 1959233 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #631reached in 1958
- Change vs 2023
- −25.0%48 in 2025, from 64
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.
Ginny in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Virginia in English — related form
- Virginia in Italian — related form
- Geneviève in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Michigan, Utah.
Ginnys among us
people named Ginny are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 33,485 born in 2025 was named Ginny
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Bethel test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Ginny's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Bethel climbed just as high around 1917, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Bethel's path sketches the road Ginny is walking now.
Ginny 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
Where Ginny is headed
Ginny looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 29% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Ginny beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ginny in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Warm and immediately friendly, and understood by everyone.
- Virginia and Genevieve both stand behind it as fuller formal options.
- Five letters and two syllables, easy to write early.
- It reads as a nickname to most people, which may matter on a formal document.
- A very well-known character in a children's book series carries the name, which will follow her.
- Ginny, Ginnie and Jinny all appear and none is standard.
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What they receive
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Ginny
Feminine · #3249 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ginnys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 6,700 people named Ginny are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ginny in 2025?
- Ginny ranks #3249 among US girl names in 2025, with 48 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ginny?
- About 1 in every 33,485 US girls born in 2025 was named Ginny — 48 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ginny with classmates?
- Ginny will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ginny
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Aisley#3249 · Quinley#3249 · Rosetta#3249 · Avalee#3249 · Unknown#3249 · Livi#3249 · Delina#3249 · Aniah#3249
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ginny? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Ginny and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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