Jemma
Feminine · Latin roots · “Gem”
Jemma is the English-spelled twin of Gemma, the Italian word for a gem or precious stone — a name that came into English use through Italy and then quietly rewrote its own first letter, since English says the G soft anyway. It is two easy syllables, the second one shared with Emma, and it has been on American records since the early twentieth century without ever crowding a classroom.
How old is the name Jemma?
Jemma first appears in US birth records in 1915 — 110 years ago. The typical Jemma is a kid of about 9 — this name's wave is very recent. About 7,900 people named Jemma are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jemma most popular?
Jemma peaked in 2018, reaching #527 nationally. Today it ranks #862, 335 places below that high. See the whole 2018 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From gemma (Latin, 'gem') to Jemma
The story of Jemma
The root is the Latin word gemma, 'gem', which became a given name in medieval Italy and stayed in steady Italian use for centuries. English speakers borrowed Gemma and pronounced it with a soft G — JEM-uh — which left the spelling doing no work, so Jemma appeared as the phonetic version. The J form took hold particularly in Britain and Ireland, riding the same late-twentieth-century wave that carried Gemma, and traveled from there into American use. In the US it has always been the quieter of the two spellings, familiar enough to read on sight without being a name anyone expects.
Meaning
Gem, precious stone
From Latin and Italian gemma, 'gem'. A second, smaller route exists in Britain, where Jemma has also served as a short form of the Hebrew name Jemima, 'dove' — but the gem reading is the one behind nearly all modern use.
How the name formed
- gemmaLatin, 'gem'
- Gemmamedieval Italian
- GemmaEnglish
- Jemma
Related forms: Gemma · Gemma · Gemma · Gema · Gema · Gemma
Pronouncing Jemma
JEM-uh
Stress on the first syllable. The J does the same job as the soft G in Gemma, so both spellings are said identically.
Nicknames for Jemma
High
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
- 1915
- Most girls named
- 2019541 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #527reached in 2018
- Change vs 2024
- −15.9%313 in 2025, from 372
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.
Jemma in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Gemma in Italian — same name
- Gemma in English — spelling variant
- Gemma in Catalan — same name
- Gema in Spanish — same name
- Gema in Portuguese — related form
- Gemma in Latin — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Jemmas among us
people named Jemma are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 5,135 born in 2025 was named Jemma
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 Halie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jemma's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Halie climbed just as high around 1996, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Halie's path sketches the road Jemma is walking now.
Jemma 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 Jemma is headed
Jemma should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Jemma beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jemma in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The spelling tells English speakers exactly how to say it — no soft-G guesswork, unlike Gemma.
- Short, two syllables, and legible on sight in the US, since the Emma family has made the sound completely familiar.
- A documented line running back to the Latin word for gem, with continuous use in Italian.
- Recognized across Italian, Spanish, Catalan and Portuguese in near-identical forms.
- An established short form, Jem, that has been in use as long as the name has.
- Gemma is the older and better-known spelling, so expect a lifetime of clarifying which letter it starts with — most often after someone has already written the G.
- It sits one consonant away from Emma, one of the most-used girls' names of recent decades, which means occasional mishearings on the phone and in noisy rooms.
- In the US the name's wave is very recent, so most people carrying it are still children; there are few adult Jemmas around to set expectations either way.
- It reads as distinctly British-Irish to some ears, which may be exactly the appeal or a small amount of explaining, depending on where the family sits.
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What they receive
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Jemma
Feminine · Latin roots · #862 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jemmas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 7,900 people named Jemma are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Jemma in 2025?
- Jemma ranks #862 among US girl names in 2025, with 313 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jemma?
- About 1 in every 5,135 US girls born in 2025 was named Jemma — 313 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jemma with classmates?
- Jemma will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jemma
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ayleen#862 · Eleanora#862 · Mercy#862 · Soraya#862 · Arisbeth#862 · Deborah#862 · Haley#861 · Lilia#859
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jemma? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jemma and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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