Jens
A masculine Scandinavian name derived from Norse mythology meaning "winner".
Name Census estimates that about 1,848 living Americans carry the first name Jens. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Jens today is around 39 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jens births was 1966 (39 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jens. 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 Jens with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.8K
~ 1 in 185,473 Americans
Peak year
1966
39 babies that year
Average age
39
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,472
Tracked since 1884
Census
Jens in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,790 people with the first name Jens, which placed it at #5,920 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
#5,920
National first-name rank
People counted
2.8K
2,790 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
90.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jens
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jens is White at 90.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.6%) and Two or More Races (2.5%). 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 Jens 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 Jens at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White90.0% · 2,510
- Hispanic or Latino4.6% · 129
- Two or more races2.5% · 69
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 31
- Black or African American1.1% · 30
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 21
Popularity
Jens: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jens from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 320 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1980s peak, Jens remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jens 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 Jens during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jens' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 10 states and territories. California, Minnesota, Utah recorded the most babies named Jens, while Oregon, New York, Georgia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 34 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jens
The name Jens has its origins in the Scandinavian languages of the Nordic countries. It is derived from the Old Norse name Jóhannes, which in turn traces its roots back to the Hebrew name Yochanan, meaning "Yahweh is gracious." The name Jens is a shortened version of Jóhannes, which was a common practice in medieval times.
In the Viking era, between the 8th and 11th centuries, the name Jens gained popularity among the Norse people, particularly in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It was often given to newborn boys as a way to honor the biblical figure John the Baptist or the Apostle John.
The earliest recorded instances of the name Jens can be found in medieval Scandinavian manuscripts and historical records. One notable example is Jens Grand, a Danish nobleman and military commander who lived in the 13th century and played a significant role in the battles against the German Teutonic Knights.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Jens. One of the most famous was Jens Munk (1579-1628), a Danish explorer who led an expedition to the Arctic regions in search of the Northwest Passage. Another notable figure was Jens Baggesen (1764-1826), a Danish poet and satirist who made significant contributions to the Romantic literary movement.
In the field of science, Jens Christian Skou (1918-2018) was a Danish chemist and Nobel laureate, recognized for his groundbreaking work on the sodium-potassium pump in cell membranes. Jens Olsen (1918-1992) was a Danish World War II resistance fighter and recipient of the prestigious Resistance Medal.
The name Jens has also been associated with several influential figures in the arts and culture. Jens Juel (1745-1802) was a Danish painter known for his portraits of the Danish royal family and nobility. Jens Bjørneboe (1920-1976) was a Norwegian writer and intellectual, renowned for his novels and plays addressing social and political issues.
People
Jens + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jens 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
Jens: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jens?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,848 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jens 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 185,473 US residents.
Is Jens a common name?
We classify Jens as "Rare". It ranks above 93.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,440 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jens most popular?
The single biggest year for Jens was 1966, when 39 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jens is about 39 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jens in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,790 people with the name Jens, or 0.92 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,920 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 Jens 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 Jens?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jens leans strongly male. 2,758 people counted with this name were male (99.0%), compared with 28 female bearers (1.0%). 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 Jens?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jens is White at 90.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.6%) and Two or More Races (2.5%). 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 Jens most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jens in the 2020 Census, accounting for 90.0% (2,510 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 Jens in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jens a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Jens in the SSA data are male. 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 Jens still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jens 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 Jens 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 common is the name Jens?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.