Yesenia
Yesenia was given to 103 girls in 2025, #1,901 among girls’ names; 39,781 Americans have been recorded with it since 1966 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 38,800 Americans named Yesenia and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 32 years old and half are between 25 and 38.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Yesenia by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Yesenia mean?
Wiktionary, Spanish section
Yesenia is “a female given name used since 1970”
Coined in 1970 for the heroine of a Mexican TV series of the same name, created by Yolanda Vargas, from Jessenia (bataua), the botanical name of a South American palm tree.
/ʝeˈsenja/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Spanish section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Yesenia?
#1,901 among girls’ names, 2025
Yesenia fell from #1,316 in 2015 to #1,901 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.10 to 0.06 per 1,000.
2,044 babies in 1987, the peak
Yesenia peaked in 1987, when 2,044 babies were given it (2,003 girls, #137 among girls’ names). The 103 births of 2025 are 5% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 103 | #1,901 | 0.06 |
| 2024 | 138 | #1,552 | 0.09 |
| 2023 | 133 | #1,585 | 0.08 |
| 2022 | 116 | #1,780 | 0.07 |
| 2021 | 114 | #1,790 | 0.07 |
| 2020 | 145 | #1,484 | 0.09 |
| 2019 | 133 | #1,606 | 0.08 |
| 2018 | 134 | #1,608 | 0.08 |
| 2017 | 150 | #1,488 | 0.09 |
| 2016 | 183 | #1,311 | 0.10 |
Every recorded year (60)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 181 | #1,316 | 0.10 |
| 2014 | 200 | #1,227 | 0.11 |
| 2013 | 239 | #1,041 | 0.14 |
| 2012 | 292 | #900 | 0.17 |
| 2011 | 297 | #883 | 0.17 |
| 2010 | 407 | #704 | 0.23 |
| 2009 | 502 | #602 | 0.27 |
| 2008 | 580 | #529 | 0.31 |
| 2007 | 680 | #474 | 0.35 |
| 2006 | 759 | #421 | 0.40 |
| 2005 | 786 | #400 | 0.43 |
| 2004 | 950 | #339 | 0.52 |
| 2003 | 1,026 | #302 | 0.56 |
| 2002 | 1,161 | #272 | 0.65 |
| 2001 | 1,173 | #268 | 0.65 |
| 2000 | 1,294 | #248 | 0.71 |
| 1999 | 1,306 | #242 | 0.74 |
| 1998 | 1,185 | #261 | 0.67 |
| 1997 | 1,306 | #229 | 0.75 |
| 1996 | 1,503 | #194 | 0.86 |
| 1995 | 1,495 | #200 | 0.85 |
| 1994 | 1,608 | #186 | 0.90 |
| 1993 | 1,527 | #191 | 0.84 |
| 1992 | 1,744 | #175 | 0.95 |
| 1991 | 1,577 | #189 | 0.84 |
| 1990 | 1,923 | #156 | 1.0 |
| 1989 | 1,303 | #204 | 0.71 |
| 1988 | 1,208 | #215 | 0.68 |
| 1987 | 2,003 | #137 | 1.2 |
| 1986 | 848 | #293 | 0.49 |
| 1985 | 522 | #423 | 0.30 |
| 1984 | 415 | #487 | 0.25 |
| 1983 | 454 | #455 | 0.27 |
| 1982 | 448 | #470 | 0.26 |
| 1981 | 513 | #423 | 0.31 |
| 1980 | 509 | #426 | 0.31 |
| 1979 | 540 | #400 | 0.34 |
| 1978 | 423 | #466 | 0.28 |
| 1977 | 446 | #448 | 0.29 |
| 1976 | 461 | #435 | 0.31 |
| 1975 | 495 | #408 | 0.34 |
| 1974 | 408 | #452 | 0.28 |
| 1973 | 343 | #503 | 0.24 |
| 1972 | 471 | #414 | 0.31 |
| 1971 | 527 | #409 | 0.32 |
| 1970 | 29 | #2,575 | 0.02 |
| 1969 | 9 | #5,451 | 0.01 |
| 1968 | 13 | #3,996 | 0.01 |
| 1967 | 12 | #4,048 | 0.01 |
| 1966 | 17 | #3,146 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Yesenia a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Yesenia has been given almost only to girls: 314 boys in 60 years of records.
Girls and boys named Yesenia: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Yesenia, and how old are they?
38,800 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 39,781 Americans ever recorded as Yesenia. The median Yesenia alive today is 32 years old; half are between 25 and 38.
The 2020 Census counted 49,764 people named Yesenia (49,662 women and girls, 102 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 38,371 born in the U.S. The Census count is 30% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 4,460 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 18,900 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 13,600 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,960 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Yesenia born?
The states with the most babies named Yesenia are California, Texas and Florida, with 71% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 27 | #1,025 | 2.9× |
| Texas | 14 | #1,710 | 1.8× |
| Florida | 7 | #1,878 | 1.1× |
| Arizona | 5 | #1,208 | 1.7× |
| Colorado | 5 | #1,049 | 0.8× |
| Oregon | 5 | #725 | 0.7× |
| Tennessee | 5 | #1,307 | 0.1× |
Where Yesenia is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Yesenia is most over-represented in California: since 1966 it was given 2.9 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Yesenia with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 6 names spelled alike, given to 47,938 babies since 1880, Yesenia is the most given (83% of them). In 2025 it was given to 103 of their 126 babies (82%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Yesenia
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Yesenia and names like it
- Compare Yesenia and YesseniaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sYesenia peaked in 1987.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Yesenia since 1910.
- Spanish namesWiktionary’s origin for Yesenia: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1987The year the most babies were named Yesenia.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Yesenia alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with YMost given first.