Jemima
Feminine · “dove”
Jemima is one of the three daughters born to Job at the end of his book, and the text says plainly that no women in the land were as beautiful. It has been in English use since the Reformation.
How old is the name Jemima?
Jemima first appears in US birth records in 1881 — 144 years ago. The typical Jemima alive today was born around 2006, making them about 19 years old. About 1,500 people named Jemima are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jemima most popular?
Jemima peaked in 1885, reaching #695 nationally. Today it ranks #3517, 2,822 places below that high. See the whole 1885 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yemimah to Jemima
The story of Jemima
The book of Job ends with the restoration of everything he lost, and his three new daughters are given names and, unusually, an inheritance alongside their brothers — Jemima, Keziah and Keren-Happuch. English Puritans took the name up after the Reformation and it was well used in Britain and America into the nineteenth century. In Britain it has remained in ordinary use; in America it has not, for reasons that are worth knowing.
Meaningscholars disagree
dove, or bright as day
Two readings compete. One connects the name to a Hebrew and Arabic word for a dove. The other builds it on the Hebrew yom, day, giving bright as day or daylight. Both are old and neither has been settled.
How the name formed
- Yemimah
- Jemima
Related forms: Yemimah · Jémima · Jemima
Pronouncing Jemima
juh-MY-muh
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. Hebrew gives yeh-mee-MAH.
Nicknames for Jemima
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
- 1881
- Most girls named
- 202362 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #695reached in 1885
- Change vs 2023
- −30.6%43 in 2025, from 62
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.
Jemima in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Yemimah in Hebrew — same name
- Jémima in French — same name
- Jemima in Spanish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, Florida, Pennsylvania.
Jemimas among us
people named Jemima are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 37,378 born in 2025 was named Jemima
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Jemima
- #3517
- Jemima on the 2025 chart
- #899
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Jemima went to 43 girls in 2025, but Jemimah is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 61, which makes it the 899th most-given girls’ name of the year — 2,618 places above the chart.
- Jemima43
- Jemimah18
About 1 girl in 26,349 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 37,378 for Jemima 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
Jemima 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 Jemima is headed
Jemima looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 19% 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.
Jemima beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jemima in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented biblical name attached to one of the more striking passages in the book of Job.
- It has remained in ordinary use in Britain and the Commonwealth without interruption.
- Mima and Jem are both usable short forms.
- In the United States a long-running pancake brand used the name as part of a racial caricature, and the association is very strong there.
- That history is specifically American; British and Commonwealth usage is unaffected by it.
- The meaning is contested between two readings, both attractive.
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What they receive
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Jemima
Feminine · #3517 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jemimas 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 Jemima are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Jemima?
- Jemima is the most-used spelling in US records — 43 of the 61 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Jemimah.
- How popular is the name Jemima in 2025?
- Jemima ranks #3517 among US girl names in 2025, with 43 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jemima?
- About 1 in every 37,378 US girls born in 2025 was named Jemima — 43 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jemima with classmates?
- Jemima will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jemima
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Maida#3517 · Amada#3517 · Afton#3517 · Allura#3517 · Jaina#3517 · Hallee#3517 · Katara#3517 · Joella#3517
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jemima? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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