Yesenia
Feminine
Yesenia is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 39,467 girls against 314 boys since 1880.
Yesenia arrived through a comic strip and a film. A Mexican writer invented it for a Roma heroine in the 1960s, the story was filmed in 1971 and became one of the biggest hits in Mexican cinema, and the name followed.
How old is the name Yesenia?
Yesenia first appears in US birth records in 1966 — 59 years ago. The typical Yesenia alive today was born around 1994, making them about 31 years old. About 38,500 people named Yesenia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Yesenia most popular?
Yesenia peaked in 1987, reaching #136 nationally. Today it ranks #1896, 1,760 places below that high. See the whole 1987 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Yesenia
Our story of Yesenia begins in a comic strip. A Mexican writer needed a name for a Roma heroine that would sound like nothing else on the page — not Spanish exactly, not anything a reader could place — and she made one. The story ran, the film came out in 1971 and drew audiences that Mexican cinema had not seen before, and within a year girls across Mexico and the American Southwest were carrying the name. It reached its American peak in the late 1990s, a generation after the film.
Meaningnot established
Not established
No established meaning. The name was coined by the Mexican writer Yolanda Vargas Dulché for a character; readings connecting it to a plant genus or to the Arabic are reconstructions after the fact. It is best understood as a deliberate invention, which is a real kind of history rather than an absence of one.
Pronouncing Yesenia
yeh-SEN-yuh
Three syllables, stress in the middle. Spanish says it the same way; the y is a consonant.
Nicknames for Yesenia
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
- 19901,923 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #136reached in 1987
- Change vs 2024
- −25.4%103 in 2025, from 138
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.
Yesenia in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Yesenia in Spanish — same name
- Jessenia in Spanish — spelling variant
- Yessenia in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Yesenias among us
people named Yesenia are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 15,605 born in 2025 was named Yesenia
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 Irma test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Yesenia's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Irma climbed just as high around 1911, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Irma's path sketches the road Yesenia is walking now.
Yesenia 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 Yesenia is headed
Yesenia should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Yesenia beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Yesenia in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The origin can be traced to a named author and a specific work, which very few names can offer.
- Three syllables with a strong middle, a rhythm that carries well in Spanish and English alike.
- Yesi is a warm and ready-made short form.
- It has no inherited meaning, which matters to families for whom that is the point.
- Several spellings are in use.
- It is closely associated with the 1990s in American records.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Yesenia
Feminine · #1896 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Yesenias are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 38,500 people named Yesenia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Yesenia in 2025?
- Yesenia ranks #1896 among US girl names in 2025, with 103 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Yesenia?
- About 1 in every 15,605 US girls born in 2025 was named Yesenia — 103 in all.
- Will my child share the name Yesenia with classmates?
- Yesenia will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Yesenia
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Catarina#1896 · Bryleigh#1896 · Maizy#1896 · Millicent#1896 · Karlee#1896 · Pepper#1902 · Halima#1902 · Violett#1902
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Yesenia? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Yesenia and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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
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