Jenine
Feminine · “God is gracious”
The first vowel of this name has drifted. French built Jeannine from Jeanne, and English speakers writing it by ear heard the unstressed first syllable as a reduced vowel — which can be written a, e or even i without changing what anyone says. Jenine is the e-spelling. Behind it is the woman who has kept the French name permanently in circulation for six hundred years.
How old is the name Jenine?
Jenine first appears in US birth records in 1932 — 93 years ago. The typical Jenine alive today was born around 1973, making them about 52 years old. About 2,100 people named Jenine are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jenine most popular?
Jenine peaked in 1970, reaching #1263 nationally. Today it ranks #13208, 11,945 places below that high. See the whole 1970 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yohanan to Jenine
The story of Jenine
Jeanne d'Arc was burned at nineteen and rehabilitated twenty-five years later, and no French woman's name has ever needed a better guarantee of survival. Jeanne stayed at the center of French naming, and the diminutives grew around it: Jeannette, Jeannine, Jeanine. English-speaking countries took them in the twentieth century, dropping the accents and settling the spellings by ear. Jenine appears in American records from the 1930s and peaks around 1970, which places it firmly in one American generation.
Meaning
God is gracious
From Jeanne, the French feminine of Jean, and behind that the Hebrew Yohanan. The -ine ending is a French diminutive; it adds a syllable and moves the stress to it, and it carries affection rather than meaning.
How the name formed
- Yohanan
- Jeanne
- Jeannine
- Jenine
Related forms: Jeannine · Juanita · Giovannina
Pronouncing Jenine
juh-NEEN
Two syllables with the stress at the back, and the ending rhyming with seen rather than fine. The first vowel is reduced to almost nothing, which is exactly why the spelling of it varies so freely.
Nicknames for Jenine
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
- 1932
- Most girls named
- 197087 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1263reached in 1970
- Change vs 2019
- +20.0%6 in 2025, from 5
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.
Jenine in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Jeannine in French — same name
- Juanita in Spanish — related form
- Giovannina in Italian — related form
Jenines among us
people named Jenine are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 267,878 born in 2025 was named Jenine
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 Olean test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jenine's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Olean climbed just as high around 1933, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Olean's path sketches the road Jenine is walking now.
Jenine 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
Jenine beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jenine in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Jen and Nina are both available and could hardly be more different.
- The name behind it has an unbroken six-hundred-year history in French.
- Six letters, two syllables, and readable on sight.
- Janine and Jeanine are both commoner and will be written instead.
- The difference is inaudible, so the spelling must be dictated.
- It belongs to a mid-century American generation and carries that flavor.
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What they receive
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Jenine
Feminine · #13208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jenines are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,100 people named Jenine are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Jenine in 2025?
- Jenine ranks #13208 among US girl names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jenine?
- About 1 in every 267,878 US girls born in 2025 was named Jenine — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jenine with classmates?
- Jenine will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jenine
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
John#13208 · Vinnie#13208 · Margery#13208 · Jossie#13208 · Tressa#13208 · Erie#13208 · Bernadine#13208 · Euna#13208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jenine? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jenine and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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