Jessenia
Feminine
Jessenia's American history has a date on it. In 1970 a Mexican film called Yesenia, adapted from a hugely popular comic by Yolanda Vargas Dulche, became one of the biggest box-office successes in the history of Mexican cinema. The name went with it, across Mexico, the Caribbean and the United States, and Jessenia is the J-spelling of it. Its American peak is 1993.
How old is the name Jessenia?
Jessenia first appears in US birth records in 1971 — 54 years ago. The typical Jessenia alive today was born around 1996, making them about 29 years old. About 5,300 people named Jessenia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jessenia most popular?
Jessenia peaked in 1993, reaching #881 nationally. Today it ranks #5722, 4,841 places below that high. See the whole 1993 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yesenia to Jessenia
The story of Jessenia
Yolanda Vargas Dulche was among the most widely read comic writers in the Spanish-speaking world, and her serial Yesenia — about a Roma girl in nineteenth-century Mexico — was adapted for film in 1970 with Jacqueline Andere in the title role. The film broke attendance records in Mexico and traveled through Latin America and the Spanish-language United States. Names spread by mass media move fast and fall fast, and this one did both: American records show almost nothing before 1971, a steep climb through the 1970s and 1980s, a peak in the early 1990s and a long decline since. The J- spellings, Jessenia and Jesenia, are the North American adaptation of a name written with a Y at home.
Meaningnot established
Not established
No established meaning. The name is sometimes connected to Jessenia, a botanical genus of South American palms named after the German botanist Karl Jessen, and sometimes to Arabic or Hebrew roots, but neither claim can be traced to a source that yields this name. What is documented is the transmission, not the etymology: the comic and the film gave the sound to millions of people at once, and the spellings — Yesenia, Jessenia, Yessenia, Jesenia — followed afterwards. A bearer can honestly say the name is modern and the meaning is not on record.
How the name formed
- Yesenia
- Jesenia
- Jessenia
Related forms: Yesenia · Yessenia · Jesenia
Pronouncing Jessenia
yeh-SEH-nee-ah
Four syllables in the Spanish saying, stress on the second, with the initial letter said as a y. The J- spelling invites an English j, jeh-SEE-nee-ah, and both are in wide American use — often within the same family, one for Spanish speakers and one for English speakers.
Nicknames for Jessenia
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
- 1971
- Most girls named
- 1993219 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #881reached in 1993
- Change vs 2024
- 0.0%21 in 2025, from 21
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.
Jessenia in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Yesenia in Spanish — spelling variant
- Yessenia in Spanish — spelling variant
- Jesenia in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Jessenias among us
people named Jessenia are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 76,537 born in 2025 was named Jessenia
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 Angelic test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jessenia's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Angelic climbed just as high around 1972, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Angelic's path sketches the road Jessenia is walking now.
Jessenia 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
Jessenia beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jessenia in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is long, rhythmic and unmistakably its own, with no close competitor in English.
- Jessy and Yesi give it a short form in each of its two languages.
- Its history is short but unusually well documented, which is rare for a modern name.
- Four spellings share the sound and the J and Y versions are both common.
- Two pronunciations circulate depending on which language is doing the reading.
- There is no established meaning, so the question will have to be answered with the story instead.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Jessenia to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Jessenia? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Jessenia
Feminine · #5722 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jessenias are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,300 people named Jessenia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Jessenia in 2025?
- Jessenia ranks #5722 among US girl names in 2025, with 21 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jessenia?
- About 1 in every 76,537 US girls born in 2025 was named Jessenia — 21 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jessenia with classmates?
- Jessenia will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jessenia
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rosina#5722 · Delores#5722 · Vaughn#5722 · Roseline#5722 · Loyal#5722 · Missy#5722 · Danitza#5722 · Margret#5722
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jessenia? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jessenia and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle