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Girl · English, from Cornish and Welsh
Jenna
Say it: JEN-uh
Meaning
A 20th-century variant of Jenny or Jennifer; Jennifer is the Cornish form of Guinevere, Welsh Gwenhwyfar, often read as 'white, fair' and 'smooth'.
Uncertainseveral explanations, none settled.
Popular in the US from the 1980s, helped by a character in the TV series Dallas.
Its wave through time
A fashion of the 1980s
In the United States
- 146,522 babies given this name since 1915
- At its height in 1985, about 1 in 267 girls
- 542 babies in 2020
Through the ages
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Jena, Jennah
Famous bearers
- Jenna Bush Hager, American journalist
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.