Jennifer

Jennifer: name meaning, origin & popularity

Meaning
“fair one, white phantom”
Origin
Welsh
Say it
JEN-uh-fer · 3 syllables
Used for
Girls

Cornish and Welsh form related to Guinevere, from Welsh Gwenhwyfar. Jennifer became the standard English spelling through 20th-century use.

How popular is Jennifer?

2024166 per million US babies
1880192019602000
Drag the line or the slider to read any year. Values are per million US births recorded by Social Security. Records before about 1937 undercount births, so early peaks can look taller than they were.

Babies named Jennifer in 2024552

2024 rank#546 girls

Peak year1974

Total US babies since 18801,476,028

Jennifer is fading: recent use is about 34% of its level ten years before.

Names like Jennifer

Variants, related forms and names with the same roots.

Jennifer questions

What does the name Jennifer mean?

Jennifer means "fair one, white phantom". It comes from Welsh. Cornish and Welsh form related to Guinevere, from Welsh Gwenhwyfar. Jennifer became the standard English spelling through 20th-century use.

Is Jennifer a boy or girl name?

Jennifer is mainly a girl's name in US records (100% of uses since 1880).

How popular is Jennifer?

552 US babies were named Jennifer in 2024. Its peak year was 1974.

How do you pronounce Jennifer?

Jennifer is usually pronounced JEN-uh-fer.

Birth counts: US Social Security Administration national data, 1880–2024 (names given to 5+ babies of a sex in a year). How we write meanings.