Jimena
Feminine
Jimena is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 17,034 girls against 8 boys since 1880.
Jimena has been a Spanish name since the Middle Ages, when it was written Ximena — the name of Jimena Díaz, wife of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, El Cid, in eleventh-century Castile. Corneille borrowed her for the French stage in the seventeenth century as Chimène. It is a name of three easy syllables with the stress in the middle, and it has been said aloud for roughly a thousand years.
How old is the name Jimena?
Jimena first appears in US birth records in 1966 — 59 years ago. The typical Jimena is a kid of about 12 — this name's wave is very recent. About 17,000 people named Jimena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jimena most popular?
Jimena peaked in 2005, reaching #387 nationally. Today it ranks #578, 191 places below that high. See the whole 2005 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Ximeno to Jimena
The story of Jimena
The name begins in the Christian kingdoms of northern Spain, where Ximeno and its feminine Ximena appear repeatedly in medieval charters from Navarre, Aragón and Castile. Its most famous bearer, Jimena Díaz, was married to El Cid and appears as Doña Ximena in the Cantar de mio Cid, the great Castilian epic set down in writing around 1200. From there she traveled into French literature as Chimène in Corneille's Le Cid. In modern Spanish the old X gave way to J in most spellings, and Jimena — with Ximena preserved alongside it, especially in Mexico — came back into wide use in the Spanish-speaking world in the later twentieth century, which is when it reached American records.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established
Jimena is the feminine of the medieval name Ximeno, and the meaning of that name is genuinely disputed. One reading connects it to Basque seme, 'son'; another treats Ximeno as a Basque and Navarrese reshaping of Simeon, the Hebrew name usually read as 'he has heard'. Neither has won. What is not in doubt is the geography: the name belongs to medieval Navarre and Castile, where kings, bishops and noblewomen carried it in its many spellings.
How the name formed
- Ximeno
- Ximena
- Jimena
Related forms: Ximena · Chimène · Ximena · Ximeno
Pronouncing Jimena
hee-MEH-nah
The Spanish J is a soft breathy h, and the stress falls on the middle syllable. English speakers who have not seen the name often try 'juh-MEE-nah' on first reading; one correction usually settles it. The Ximena spelling is pronounced identically.
Nicknames for Jimena
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
- 1966
- Most girls named
- 2016830 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #387reached in 2005
- Change vs 2024
- −8.8%515 in 2025, from 565
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.
Jimena in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ximena in Spanish — spelling variant
- Chimène in French — related form
- Ximena in Catalan — spelling variant
- Ximeno in Basque — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Jimenas among us
people named Jimena are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 3,121 born in 2025 was named Jimena
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 Johnna test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jimena's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Johnna climbed just as high around 1963, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Johnna's path sketches the road Jimena is walking now.
Jimena 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 Jimena is headed
Jimena should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Jimena beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jimena in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented medieval history, from Navarrese charters to the Cantar de mio Cid, and continuous use in Spanish ever since.
- Works in both Spanish and English mouths without being translated or altered — only the J needs explaining.
- Comes with ready-made short forms already in real use: Jime, Mena, Jimenita.
- Familiar and unremarkable across Spanish-speaking communities, while remaining uncommon enough that a child is unlikely to share it in her class.
- Outside Spanish-speaking settings, the J will be misread as an English J for life. Most Jimenas develop a quick, unbothered way of saying it, but the correction never quite stops.
- Jimena and Ximena are the same name and both are in American use, so mail, forms and school lists will sometimes arrive with the other spelling. Worth deciding which one you want and holding to it.
- The name's American wave is recent, so nearly everyone carrying it here is young. That means no built-in generational association either way — a blank slate rather than a hand-me-down.
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What they receive
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Jimena
Feminine · #578 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jimenas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 17,000 people named Jimena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Jimena in 2025?
- Jimena ranks #578 among US girl names in 2025, with 515 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jimena?
- About 1 in every 3,121 US girls born in 2025 was named Jimena — 515 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jimena with classmates?
- Jimena will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jimena
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kyla#579 · Imani#579 · Cleo#577 · Mckenzie#576 · Kailany#581 · Reina#582 · Cali#574 · Sevyn#574
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jimena? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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