Jenaro
Masculine · “Latin Ianuarius”
Janus was the god of doorways, and he had two faces because a door looks both ways. The Romans named the first month after him, since a year is a threshold, and from that month came a Latin name, Ianuarius, and from that name a saint of Naples whose dried blood is still displayed three times a year. Jenaro is the Spanish end of that chain.
How old is the name Jenaro?
Jenaro first appears in US birth records in 1919 — 106 years ago. The typical Jenaro alive today was born around 1983, making them about 42 years old. About 600 people named Jenaro are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jenaro most popular?
Jenaro peaked in 1959, reaching #2295 nationally. Today it ranks #8243, 5,948 places below that high. See the whole 1959 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Ianuarius to Jenaro
The story of Jenaro
Janus is one of the few major Roman gods with no Greek equivalent, which suggests he is genuinely Italic rather than borrowed. He presided over beginnings, gates and transitions, and his temple in the Forum had doors that stood open in war and shut in peace: they were shut very rarely. The month named for him marks the year's threshold, and the Romans used month names as personal names freely, which is why Augustus, Julius, Sextilius, Aprilis and Ianuarius all occur. Only two survived into general European use, and both did so through saints. The Neapolitan cult of San Gennaro is the reason the name is common in southern Italy and, through Spanish contact, in Spain and Mexico. The liquefaction of the saint's blood, first recorded in 1389, is still performed publicly and still unexplained.
Meaning
Latin Ianuarius, of January
From Latin Ianuarius, belonging to Janus, the name of the month and then of a person. San Gennaro, Januarius of Benevento, was bishop of Naples and was martyred around 305; he is the patron of the city and one of the most venerated saints in southern Italy. Jenaro and Genaro are the Spanish forms, the initial letter varying because Spanish g before e and j represent the same sound. It peaks in the American data in 1959.
How the name formed
- Ianuarius
- Gennaro
- Jenaro
Related forms: Gennaro · Genaro · Januario
Pronouncing Jenaro
heh-NAH-roh
Three syllables, stress on the second. The initial j is the Spanish jota, made at the back of the throat, and the spellings Jenaro and Genaro represent the same sound. The Italian Gennaro begins with a soft English j and has a doubled n.
Nicknames for Jenaro
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
- 1919
- Most boys named
- 198716 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2295reached in 1959
- Change vs 2023
- 0.0%9 in 2025, from 9
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.
Jenaro in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Gennaro in Italian — same name
- Genaro in Spanish — spelling variant
- Januario in Portuguese — same name
Jenaros among us
people named Jenaro are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 189,786 born in 2025 was named Jenaro
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 Aristeo test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jenaro's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Aristeo climbed just as high around 1930, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Aristeo's path sketches the road Jenaro is walking now.
Jenaro 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
Jenaro beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jenaro in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The etymology is settled and reaches back to a Roman god.
- It has a substantial history as a saint's name in Italy and Spain.
- The rhythm is even and easy to say.
- Genaro with a g is the more common Spanish spelling.
- English speakers give the j an English value.
- It reads as traditional and mid-century in Spanish-speaking families.
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What they receive
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Jenaro
Masculine · #8243 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jenaros are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Jenaro are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Jenaro in 2025?
- Jenaro ranks #8243 among US boy names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jenaro?
- About 1 in every 189,786 US boys born in 2025 was named Jenaro — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jenaro with classmates?
- Jenaro will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jenaro
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Danial#8243 · Ogden#8243 · Aaren#8243 · Trinity#8243 · Kourtney#8243 · Maury#8243 · Lindon#8243 · Elbert#8243
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jenaro? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jenaro and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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