Ximena
Feminine · “Not settled”
Ximena is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 39,656 girls against 13 boys since 1880.
Ximena is the older Spanish spelling of Jimena, from the days when Spanish wrote with an x the sound it now writes with a j. It belongs to medieval Iberia, and to Jimena Díaz, wife of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar — El Cid — a woman real enough to appear in the chronicles and later on the French stage as Chimène in Corneille's Le Cid of 1637. In the mouth it is three open syllables with the stress in the middle: hee-MEH-na.
How old is the name Ximena?
Ximena first appears in US birth records in 1966 — 59 years ago. The typical Ximena is a kid of about 9 — this name's wave is very recent. About 39,500 people named Ximena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ximena most popular?
Ximena peaked in 2018, reaching #118 nationally. Today it ranks #183, 65 places below that high. See the whole 2018 chart.
Where it comes from
From Ximeno to Ximena
The story of Ximena
The name grew up in medieval Spain, where Ximeno and Ximena were ordinary names among the Christian kingdoms of the north. Its most documented bearer is Jimena Díaz, wife of El Cid in the eleventh century; through the Cid legend she reached French theater as Chimène. When Spanish spelling was reformed, the x that once stood for a 'sh' sound was rewritten as j, and Jimena became the standard form in Spain — while Ximena survived, and then flourished again, in Latin America. It reached US records in the mid-twentieth century and its real rise came much later, carried largely by Spanish-speaking families.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not settled — two serious candidates
Ximena is the feminine of the medieval Iberian name Ximeno. One reading takes Ximeno as an Iberian form of Simeon, the Hebrew name understood as 'he has heard'. The other traces it to Basque, connecting it with 'seme', son. Neither has won the argument, and the name is older than the evidence needed to settle it.
How the name formed
- Ximeno
- Ximena
- Jimena
- Chimène
Related forms: Jimena · Chimène · Xemena · Ximena
Pronouncing Ximena
hee-MEH-nah
The x carries the old Spanish 'sh' sound that later became the j of Jimena, so in Spanish it sounds like an h. English speakers commonly reach for see-MEH-nah or zih-MEE-nah instead, and both are heard in the US. Worth deciding early which one your family answers to.
Nicknames for Ximena
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
- 1966
- Most girls named
- 20162,680 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #118reached in 2018
- Change vs 2024
- −3.7%1,686 in 2025, from 1,750
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.
Ximena in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Jimena in Spanish — spelling variant
- Chimène in French — related form
- Xemena in Galician — related form
- Ximena in Portuguese — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Arizona.
Ximenas among us
people named Ximena are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 953 born in 2025 was named Ximena
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 Alisha test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Ximena's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Alisha climbed just as high around 1987, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Alisha's path sketches the road Ximena is walking now.
Ximena 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 Ximena is headed
Ximena 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.
Ximena beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ximena in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Documented in Spain since the Middle Ages, with a named eleventh-century bearer and a place in the Cid legend — a long, unbroken record behind a name that feels current.
- Immediately readable in Spanish-speaking households, where Xime and Ximenita are ready-made short forms.
- Travels between languages with recognizable relatives: Jimena in Spain, Chimène in French.
- Distinctive without being invented — familiar to millions of people, and rare enough that a classroom is unlikely to hold two.
- The x is the whole difficulty. Outside Spanish-speaking settings it will be read as an English x or a z, and correcting it politely becomes a lifelong small errand.
- Ximena and Jimena are the same name in two spellings, so mail, records and relatives may drift between them.
- Its US wave is recent, so most bearers are still children. A grown Ximena is uncommon here — which cuts both ways: little competition, and few models.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Ximena 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.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Ximena
Feminine · #183 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ximenas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 39,500 people named Ximena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ximena in 2025?
- Ximena ranks #183 among US girl names in 2025, with 1,686 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ximena?
- About 1 in every 953 US girls born in 2025 was named Ximena — 1,686 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ximena with classmates?
- Ximena will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ximena
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Annie#182 · Adalynn#184 · Kaylani#185 · Sutton#181 · Amaya#180 · Lila#186 · Katherine#186 · Lilah#179
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ximena? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Ximena and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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