Yessenia
Feminine
Yessenia is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 7,454 girls against 12 boys since 1880.
Yessenia is the Spanish-standard spelling of a name that is barely fifty years old, and it is one of the very few names whose entire history can be told from a single date. A 1970 Mexican film made it, and every bearer in the world descends from that moment. Its American peak is 1990.
How old is the name Yessenia?
Yessenia first appears in US birth records in 1971 — 54 years ago. The typical Yessenia alive today was born around 1996, making them about 29 years old. About 7,300 people named Yessenia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Yessenia most popular?
Yessenia peaked in 1990, reaching #663 nationally. Today it ranks #6325, 5,662 places below that high. See the whole 1990 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yesenia to Yessenia
The story of Yessenia
Yolanda Vargas Dulche's comic serial Yesenia, about a Roma girl in nineteenth-century Mexico, was adapted for film in 1970 and became one of the biggest box-office successes in Mexican history. The name spread immediately across Mexico, the Caribbean and Spanish-speaking America. Spellings divided by language: Yesenia and Yessenia are the Spanish standards, Jessenia and Jesenia the North American adaptations for English readers. American records show almost nothing before 1971, a steep climb, a peak around 1990 and a long decline — the classic shape of a name spread by a single film.
Meaningnot established
Not established
No established meaning. The name is sometimes connected to Jessenia, a genus of South American palm named after the German botanist Karl Jessen, and sometimes to Arabic or Hebrew roots; none can be traced to a source that produces this form. What is documented is the transmission rather than the etymology. A bearer can accurately say the name is modern, that its origin is a work of fiction, and that no dictionary contains it.
How the name formed
- Yesenia
- Yessenia
Related forms: Yesenia · Jessenia · Jesenia
Pronouncing Yessenia
yeh-SEH-nee-ah
Four syllables, stress on the second, with the y as in yes. The doubled s makes no difference in Spanish, where s is always the same sound. English speakers reading the J spelling produce jeh-SEE-nee-ah instead.
Nicknames for Yessenia
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
- 1990330 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #663reached in 1990
- Change vs 2024
- −43.8%18 in 2025, from 32
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.
Yessenia in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Yesenia in Spanish — spelling variant
- Jessenia in English — spelling variant
- Jesenia in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Arizona.
Yessenias among us
people named Yessenia are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 89,293 born in 2025 was named Yessenia
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 Sheilah test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Yessenia's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Sheilah climbed just as high around 1955, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Sheilah's path sketches the road Yessenia is walking now.
Yessenia 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
Yessenia beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Yessenia 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.
- Yesi and Jessy 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 Y and J versions are both common.
- There is no established meaning, so the question has to be answered with the story.
- Its curve is tightly 1975-2000, which places a bearer's generation.
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What they receive
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Yessenia
Feminine · #6325 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Yessenias are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 7,300 people named Yessenia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Yessenia in 2025?
- Yessenia ranks #6325 among US girl names in 2025, with 18 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Yessenia?
- About 1 in every 89,293 US girls born in 2025 was named Yessenia — 18 in all.
- Will my child share the name Yessenia with classmates?
- Yessenia will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Yessenia
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kaye#6325 · Doria#6325 · Karolyn#6325 · Rosaleen#6325 · Roni#6325 · Darian#6325 · Svetlana#6325 · Fanny#6325
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Yessenia? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Yessenia and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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