How popular is the baby name Jenny in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Jenny.

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Popularity of the baby name Jenny


Posts that mention the name Jenny

Popular baby names in Norway, 2024

Flag of Norway
Flag of Norway

Last year, the Scandinavian country of Norway welcomed 54,013 babies — 26,129 girls and 27,884 boys.

What were the most popular names among these babies? Nora and Lucas.

Here are Norway’s top 50 girl names and top 50 boy names of 2024:

Girl names

  1. Nora/Norah/Noora, 385 baby girls
  2. Emma, 379
  3. Olivia/Oliwia, 342
  4. Sofie/Sophie, 329
  5. Ella, 324
  6. Maja/Maya/Maia, 307 (tie)
  7. Sofia/Sophia, 307 (tie)
  8. Leah/Lea, 303
  9. Selma, 291
  10. Ellinor/Elinor, 280
  11. Hedda, 277
  12. Alma, 268
  13. Frida, 264
  14. Iben, 253
  15. Ingrid, 249
  16. Astrid/Astri, 248
  17. Emilie, 245
  18. Sara/Sarah/Zara, 242
  19. Mia, 239
  20. Ada, 238
  21. Lilly/Lily, 225
  22. Tiril/Tirill, 215
  23. Amalie, 205
  24. Aurora, 194
  25. Hedvig, 191 (tie)
  26. Jenny/Jennie, 191 (tie)
  27. Josefine/Josephine, 189
  28. Ellie/Elli/Elly, 185
  29. Eva, 179
  30. Hennie/Henny, 178
  31. Hanna/Hannah, 174
  32. Vilde, 170
  33. Mathilde/Matilde, 167
  34. Anna, 164
  35. Live, 158 (tie)
  36. Saga, 158 (tie)
  37. Tuva, 157
  38. Solveig/Solvei, 152
  39. Linnea/Linea, 151
  40. Ida, 147
  41. Sigrid, 144
  42. Amelia, 141
  43. Thea, 138
  44. Marie, 136
  45. Mille, 135
  46. Eline, 133
  47. Eira, 130 (tie)
  48. Signe, 130 (tie)
  49. Mie, 124
  50. Hermine, 121

Boy names

  1. Lucas/Lukas, 431 baby boys
  2. Noah/Noa, 402
  3. Oliver, 398
  4. Emil, 396
  5. Jakob/Jacob, 386
  6. William, 360
  7. Theodor/Teodor, 356
  8. Ludvig/Ludvik/Ludwig, 336
  9. Liam, 330
  10. Johannes, 322
  11. Elias, 319
  12. Isak/Isaac/Isac, 316
  13. Filip/Philip/Fillip/Phillip, 312
  14. Oskar/Oscar, 310
  15. Olav, 298
  16. Henrik, 292
  17. Aksel/Axel, 290
  18. Theo/Teo, 275
  19. Kasper/Casper/Kacper, 272
  20. Tobias, 267
  21. Magnus, 264
  22. Ulrik, 250
  23. Adam, 247
  24. Matheo, 246
  25. Gustav, 234 (tie)
  26. Muhammad/Mohammad/Mohammed/Mohamed/Muhammed/Mohamad, 234 (tie)
  27. Alfred, 228
  28. Herman/Hermann, 210
  29. Håkon/Haakon, 204
  30. Mathias/Matias/Mattias, 203
  31. Sander, 197 (tie)
  32. Sverre, 197 (tie)
  33. Even, 195 – looks like Evan, but actually comes from the Old Norse name Eyvindr
  34. Mikkel, 194
  35. Viktor/Victor/Wiktor, 193
  36. Leo, 187
  37. Felix, 184
  38. Vetle, 178
  39. Birk, 177
  40. Leon, 176
  41. Iver, 173
  42. Edvin/Edwin, 170 (tie)
  43. Odin, 170 (tie)
  44. Johan, 169
  45. Luca/Luka, 165
  46. Benjamin, 163
  47. Jens, 159
  48. Jonas, 158
  49. Alexander/Aleksander, 157
  50. Markus/Marcus, 146

Interestingly, “almost every fifth child” born in Norway last year received a double name. The most popular combination was Emma Sofie, which was given to 14 baby girls.

I didn’t post about Norway’s top baby names of 2023, but here are Norway’s 2022 rankings.

Sources: Statistikk om Navn – Statistics Norway, Sjekk listen over de mest populære navnene i 2024 – SSB, Births – Statistics Norway

Image: Adapted from Flag of Norway (public domain)

Baby name story: Jennifer Rebecca

Frederica von Stade's album "Song Recital" (1978)
Frederica von Stade album

Learning that Carrie-Anne Moss was not named after the song “Jenny Rebecca” led me to discover a baby who was named after “Jenny Rebecca.”

Before we get to that, though, let’s start with the fact that the song itself was named after a baby named Jenny Rebecca.

It was written by composer and lyricist Carol Hall for her friends Ilene and William Goldman upon the birth of their first child, Jenny Rebecca, circa 1962. The lyrics begin, “Jenny Rebecca, four days old / How do you like the world so far?”

The song was recorded first by Barbra Streisand in 1965, then later by other artists.

One of those other artists was classical singer Frederica von Stade, who recorded “Jenny Rebecca” [vid] in December of 1977 for her album Song Recital (1978). According to the album’s liner notes, von Stade was “so fond of [the song] that she named her first child, born just forty-eight hours after this record was recorded, Jenny Rebecca.”

Her daughter’s full first name was actually Jennifer, which makes sense, given that Jennifer was the top girl name in the nation at that time. (It ranked #1 for fifteen years straight, from 1970 to 1984.)

P.S. William Goldman was the screenwriter/novelist behind Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Princess Bride.

Sources:

How did Carrie-Anne Moss get her name?

Canadian actress Carrie-Anne Moss
Carrie-Anne Moss

Canadian actress Carrie-Anne Moss, who portrayed the character Trinity in all four Matrix movies, was born to parents Barbara and Melvyn Moss of British Columbia in August of 1967.

Why was she named Carrie-Anne?

Her mother named her after the song “Carrie-Anne,” by the Hollies. It was a last-minute change. She almost got named Jenny Rebecca, after a Barbra Streisand hit of a previous summer. A disaster narrowly averted.

“Carrie Anne,” which was released in May of 1967, peaked at #9 on Billboard‘s U.S. Hot 100 chart a couple of weeks before Moss was born. (Billboard didn’t launch a Canadian Hot 100 chart until mid-2007.)

“Jenny Rebecca,” on the other hand, was never released as a single. But it was the third track on Streisand’s best-selling album My Name Is Barbra (1965).

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Carrie-Anne Moss at Peabody’s “Marvel’s Jessica Jones” Night by Jana Lynn French/Peabody under CC BY 2.0.

What do you think of the name Poplar?

Eastern cottonwood tree

Earlier this month, a Mississippi newspaper ran a short item about a young girl named Poplar:

Precious little Poplar Murphy spent Christmas on Poplar Avenue with her grandparents, Steve and Jenny Lynn Wilkerson, in their Philadelphia [Mississippi] home. She was named after the street where her mother, Lacie Wilkerson Murphy, grew up.

I’ve come across the names Peuplier (“poplar” in French) and Mîtos (“poplar” in Cree) before, but I believe this is the first time I’ve spotted the name Poplar itself.

Interestingly, the word poplar refers not just to poplar trees, but also to aspens and cottonwoods. All three are part of the genus Populus.

What are your thoughts on the name Poplar? Considering the current trendiness of names like Aspen and Poppy, do you think Poplar could start seeing more usage soon?

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Eastern Cottonwood (Populus deltoides) by Jay Sturner under CC BY 2.0.