Jena
A feminine name of German origin meaning "Giver of life".
Name Census estimates that about 12,265 living Americans carry the first name Jena. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Jena today is around 38 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jena births was 1986 (619 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jena. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Jena with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
12K
~ 1 in 27,946 Americans
Peak year
1986
619 babies that year
Average age
38
years old
1988 SSA rank
#6,067
Tracked since 1900
Census
Jena in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 12,282 people with the first name Jena, which placed it at #2,166 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#2,166
National first-name rank
People counted
12K
12,282 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
4.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
80.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jena
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jena is White at 80.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.4%) and Black (4.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Jena described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Jena at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White80.5% · 9,884
- Hispanic or Latino6.4% · 787
- Black or African American4.7% · 580
- Two or more races4.3% · 525
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.5% · 427
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 79
Gender
Gender distribution for Jena
Out of the 13,224 babies given the name Jena since 1880, 99.9% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Jena as a male name
- Ranked #6,067 in 1988
- 7 male births in 1988
- Peak: 1988 (7 births)
Jena as a female name
- Ranked #6,749 in 2024
- 17 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1986 (619 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jena appears almost entirely female. Of the 12,289 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Jena: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jena from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 4,082 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jena by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Jena during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jenas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 45 states and territories. California, Texas, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Jena, while Alaska, Wyoming, West Virginia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 211 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jena
The name Jena has its origins in various languages and cultures, with different possible meanings and etymologies. One interpretation suggests that it is derived from the ancient Greek name "Gena," which means "born" or "descended from." This name was used in ancient Greece and has ties to Greek mythology.
Another theory traces the name's roots to the Sanskrit word "jna," meaning "knowledge" or "enlightenment." This connection links Jena to the spiritual and philosophical traditions of ancient India, where names often carried deep symbolic significance.
In the Slavic languages, such as Russian and Czech, the name Jena is a diminutive form of the name "Yevgeniya," which itself is derived from the Greek name "Eugenia," meaning "well-born" or "noble." This suggests that the name Jena may have been associated with aristocratic or upper-class families in Slavic cultures.
Historically, the name Jena has been recorded in various forms across different cultures and time periods. In ancient Roman texts, there are mentions of individuals named "Gena" or "Genasius," which may be related to the Greek root of the name.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Jena was Jena of Semendria, a 14th-century Serbian princess and the wife of the Serbian ruler Stefan Uroš V. Her name is sometimes spelled as "Jerina" or "Yevgenia" in historical records.
In the realm of literature, Jena Austen (1775-1817) was a famous English novelist known for her works such as "Pride and Prejudice" and "Sense and Sensibility." Although her first name is spelled differently, it is believed to be a variation of the name Jena.
During the 19th century, Jena Sibelius (1865-1957) was a Finnish composer and violinist who made significant contributions to the development of Finnish national music. His compositions, such as the "Finlandia" symphony, are widely celebrated.
In the field of science, Jena Curie (1867-1934) was a pioneering physicist and chemist who conducted groundbreaking research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the first person to win the Nobel Prize twice.
Another notable figure with the name Jena was Jena Krupskaya (1869-1939), a Russian revolutionary and the wife of Vladimir Lenin. She played a significant role in the Bolshevik movement and contributed to the development of the Soviet education system.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Jena
People
Jena + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jena as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with J
Other first names starting with J with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Jena: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jena?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 12,265 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jena going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 27,946 US residents.
Is Jena a common name?
We classify Jena as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 13,224 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jena most popular?
The single biggest year for Jena was 1986, when 619 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jena is about 38 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jena in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 12,282 people with the name Jena, or 4.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,166 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Jena in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Jena?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jena appears almost entirely female. Of the 12,289 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Jena?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jena is White at 80.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.4%) and Black (4.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Jena most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jena in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.5% (9,884 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Jena in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jena a female name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Jena in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Jena still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jena in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Jena can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Jena?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.