Jena
Feminine · “Contested”
Jena is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 13,241 girls against 7 boys since 1880.
Jena is a spelling that serves several names at once: it is Jenna without a doubled n, it is a variant of Gena and Gina, and it is a German university town where Napoleon destroyed the Prussian army in 1806. Its American peak, 1985, belongs to none of those directly.
How old is the name Jena?
Jena first appears in US birth records in 1900 — 125 years ago. The typical Jena alive today was born around 1987, making them about 38 years old. About 12,500 people named Jena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jena most popular?
Jena peaked in 1985, reaching #371 nationally. Today it ranks #5410, 5,039 places below that high. See the whole 1985 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Jane to Jena
Our story of Jena
This name's American history is a good illustration of how a sound can rise without a source. Jenny was ordinary through the mid-twentieth century as a form of Jane. Jenna appears in quantity in the 1970s — a character on Dallas from 1983 helped considerably — and enters the American top hundred. And around it a set of spellings crowds in: Jena, Jenae, Genna, Gena, Jennah. Each behaves as its own name in the data and each peaks within a few years of the others, Jena in 1985. What they share is not descent from a common ancestor but a two-syllable shape that American ears found comfortable in exactly that decade, and a spelling system loose enough to write it six ways.
Meaningscholars disagree
Contested; depends on which name it spells
Jenna is usually taken as an extension of Jenny, itself a familiar form of Jane and so of John — God is gracious. Gina is a clipping of Regina, queen, or of Luigina and Georgina. A Cornish name Jenna and an Arabic janna, garden or paradise, are also offered. Jena matches all of them in sound and none in spelling exclusively, and the record does not distinguish.
How the name formed
- Jane
- Jenny
- Jenna
- Jena
Related forms: Jenna · Gina
Pronouncing Jena
JEN-uh
Two syllables, stress on the first. Some bearers say JEE-nuh with a long first vowel, following Gina, and the single n leaves the spelling open. The German town is YAY-nah.
Nicknames for Jena
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
- 1900
- Most girls named
- 1985614 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #371reached in 1985
- Change vs 2023
- −4.2%23 in 2025, from 24
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.
Jena in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Jenna in English — spelling variant
- Gina in Italian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Michigan.
Jenas among us
people named Jena are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 69,881 born in 2025 was named Jena
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Jena
- #5410
- Jena on the 2025 chart
- #535
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Jena went to 23 girls in 2025, but Jenna and Jennah are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 473, which makes it the 535th most-given girls’ name of the year — 4,875 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 3,398 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 69,881 for Jena 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 Melva test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jena's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Melva climbed just as high around 1937, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Melva's path sketches the road Jena is walking now.
Jena 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
Jena beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jena in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Jen and Jenny are both instantly available and completely ordinary.
- Four letters and two syllables travel anywhere.
- Everyone can say it after one hearing.
- The first vowel is said two ways and the spelling does not settle it.
- Jenna, Jena, Gena and Genna are four spellings of nearly one sound.
- It is closely dated to the 1980s and 1990s.
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What they receive
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Jena
Feminine · #5410 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jenas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 12,500 people named Jena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Jena?
- Jena is one of 3 recorded spellings. Jenna is the more common one — 418 births in 2025 against 23 for Jena.
- How popular is the name Jena in 2025?
- Jena ranks #5410 among US girl names in 2025, with 23 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jena?
- About 1 in every 69,881 US girls born in 2025 was named Jena — 23 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jena with classmates?
- Jena will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jena
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Aina#5410 · Sherry#5410 · Kathia#5410 · Taj#5410 · Analicia#5410 · Divya#5410 · Halimah#5410 · Leo#5410
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jena? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jena and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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