Jennings

Jennings: name meaning, origin & popularity

Meaning
“little John; son of John”
Origin
English
Say it
JEN-ingz · 2 syllables
Used for
Boys (94% of all uses)

From an English surname derived from Jenning, a medieval diminutive of John. As a given name, it reflects surname-style use.

How popular is Jennings?

202432.0 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 Jennings in 2024105

2024 rank#1,952 boys

Peak year1897

Total US babies since 18805,090

Jennings is rising: use over the last five years is 2.7× what it was a decade earlier.

Names like Jennings

Variants, related forms and names with the same roots.

  • JohnYahweh is gracious · Hebrew
  • JackGod is gracious · English
  • Jacksonson of Jack · English
  • IanGod is gracious · Scottish Gaelic
  • Jaxonson of Jack · English
  • GiovanniGod is gracious · Italian
  • JuanYahweh is gracious · Hebrew
  • Evanthe Lord is gracious · Welsh

Jennings questions

What does the name Jennings mean?

Jennings means "little John; son of John". It comes from English. From an English surname derived from Jenning, a medieval diminutive of John. As a given name, it reflects surname-style use.

Is Jennings a boy or girl name?

Jennings is mainly a boy's name in US records (94% of uses since 1880).

How popular is Jennings?

105 US babies were named Jennings in 2024. Its peak year was 1897.

How do you pronounce Jennings?

Jennings is usually pronounced JEN-ingz.

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.