Jeanna
Feminine · “God is gracious”
Jeanna is doubly feminine. Jean is already the Scottish feminine of John — it has been a woman's name in Scotland for six centuries — and adding an -a marks it feminine a second time. That kind of reinforcement happens when a name travels far enough from home that its original grammar stops being obvious. Its American peak is 1970.
How old is the name Jeanna?
Jeanna first appears in US birth records in 1926 — 99 years ago. The typical Jeanna alive today was born around 1977, making them about 48 years old. About 8,300 people named Jeanna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jeanna most popular?
Jeanna peaked in 1970, reaching #584 nationally. Today it ranks #6116, 5,532 places below that high. See the whole 1970 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yohanan to Jeanna
The story of Jeanna
Jean was the standard Scottish form of Jane from the medieval period and stayed distinctly Scottish until the twentieth century, when it became a general English-language name and reached the American top ten in the 1920s. By mid-century it had faded, and the extensions began: Jeanne, Jeanna, Jeanine, Jeannette and Jeanie all gave families a way to use the sound without the plain form's dated feel. Jeanna belongs to that group and peaks in 1970. In French, meanwhile, Jean is exclusively masculine, which produces regular confusion between Jean-Paul and Jean Smith.
Meaning
God is gracious
Hebrew Yohanan, 'Yahweh is gracious', gives Greek Ioannes and Latin Iohannes; the feminine Iohanna produced Old French Jehanne, which became English Jane and Scottish Jean. So Jean was a woman's name before it reached America. The added -a is the Indo-European feminine marker doing its job again, on a name that already carried it. The meaning is unaffected and travels intact from the Hebrew.
How the name formed
- Yohanan
- Iohanna
- Jean
- Jeanna
Related forms: Jean · Jeanne · Jane · Giovanna
Pronouncing Jeanna
JEE-nah
Two syllables, stress on the first, with a long e. A second saying, ZHAH-nah, follows the French Jeanne and is heard on some American bearers. The English version is much the more common.
Nicknames for Jeanna
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
- 1926
- Most girls named
- 1971281 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #584reached in 1970
- Change vs 2023
- −13.6%19 in 2025, from 22
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.
Jeanna in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Jean in Scottish — related form
- Jeanne in French — related form
- Jane in English — related form
- Giovanna in Italian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas.
Jeannas among us
people named Jeanna are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 84,593 born in 2025 was named Jeanna
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Jeanna
- #6116
- Jeanna on the 2025 chart
- #932
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Jeanna went to 19 girls in 2025, but Jeana is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 28, which makes it the 932nd most-given girls’ name of the year — 5,184 places above the chart.
- Jeanna19
- Jeana9
About 1 girl in 57,402 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 84,593 for Jeanna 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
The Carmel test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jeanna's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Carmel climbed just as high around 1914, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Carmel's path sketches the road Jeanna is walking now.
Jeanna 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
Jeanna beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jeanna in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled and shared with one of the most widely borne names on earth.
- Jean is available as a shorter and entirely traditional alternative.
- The spelling is short and phonetic in English.
- Jeanna, Jenna, Gina and Jeanne all circulate and are constantly confused.
- In French the root name is masculine, which occasionally surprises.
- Its American curve is around 1970, which places a bearer's generation.
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What they receive
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Jeanna
Feminine · #6116 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jeannas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 8,300 people named Jeanna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Jeanna?
- Jeanna is the most-used spelling in US records — 19 of the 28 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Jeana.
- How popular is the name Jeanna in 2025?
- Jeanna ranks #6116 among US girl names in 2025, with 19 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jeanna?
- About 1 in every 84,593 US girls born in 2025 was named Jeanna — 19 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jeanna with classmates?
- Jeanna will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jeanna
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Alvina#6116 · Mena#6116 · Harvey#6116 · Kellie#6116 · Alden#6116 · Sammi#6116 · Jai#6116 · Mamie#6116
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jeanna? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jeanna and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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