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Girl · Medieval Iberian, possibly Basque or Hebrew through Latin (disputed)
Jimena
Say it: hee-MEH-nah
Meaning
Uncertain. Tied to the medieval masculine Jimeno (Latin Scemenus), which may come from Simeon or from Basque; no proposal is settled.
Uncertainseveral explanations, none settled.
Recorded in León, Castile and Navarre from the 10th century, made famous by the Cid's wife, and widely used again in Spain in the 21st century.
Its wave through time
Popular now
In the United States
- 14,028 babies given this name since 1966
- At its height in 2016, about 1 in 2,100 girls
- 589 babies in 2020
Through the ages
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Ximena, Gimena
Famous bearers
- Jimena Díaz, wife of El Cid
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Medieval Spanish and Portuguese chronicles and charters
- Royal and noble genealogies
- Well-known works of literature
- 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.