Jenkins
surname · Latin script
Meaning: patronymic from Jenkin
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/dʒɛŋkɪnz/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Jenkins is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. In Åland Islands it is the 25th most common surname.
- GHGhana≈1 in 660(inferred from the name graph)
- JMJamaica≈1 in 1.1K
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 1.2K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- China (inferred from the name graph)
- #383 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 583 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 567 (inferred from the name graph)
≈920,000 people, est.
of 19M surnames
Highest-authority source
Åland Islands, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
patronymic from Jenkin. Jenkins is one of the most common names in England, especially southwestern England, but is also especially associated with Wales.
Sources 1
- Dictionary of American Family Names
Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.
Often considered alongside
Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Jenkins, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.
From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Jenkins counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN China | — | ≈920,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.5K | — | Jenkins | 30 |
| US United States | #84 | 222,653 | 1 in 1.5K | 223K | Jenkins | 583 |
| GB United Kingdom | #80 | ≈54,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.2K | — | Jenkins | 320 |
| GH Ghana | #37 | ≈44,000 est. | ≈1 in 660 | — | Jenkins | 37 |
| EG Egypt | — | ≈26,000 est. | ≈1 in 4.1K | — | Jenkins | 14 |
| JM Jamaica | #31 | ≈2,500 est. | ≈1 in 1.1K | — | Jenkins | 10 |
| AX Åland Islands | #25 | ≈46 est. | ≈1 in 567 | — | Jenkins | 5 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Jenkins is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In English, A surname originating as a patronymic of Cornish and in English ("mainly of Devon") origin.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In English, Son of Jenkin.
as a nameEncyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]
In Irish, App. See Shinkwin
as a nameThe Surnames of Ireland
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Florence Foster Jenkinsb. 1868USAmerican soprano, renowned for her lack of musical skill and singing ability (1868–1944)
- Roy Jenkinsb. 1920GBBritish politician (1920–2003)
- Richard Burtonb. 1925GBnot in their usual nameWelsh actor (1925–1984)
- Ken Jenkinsb. 1940USAmerican actor
- Karl Jenkinsb. 1944GBWelsh musician and composer (b. 1944)
- Richard Jenkinsb. 1947USAmerican actor
- Cat Ellingtonb. 1970USnot in their usual nameAmerican songwriter, casting director, poet, author, researcher, voice actress, and entrepreneur (born 1970)
- Patty Jenkinsb. 1971USAmerican film director
- Noam Jenkinsb. 1983CACanadian actor
- Carter Jenkinsb. 1991USAmerican actor
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 44 sources across 27 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 223K | #102 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 214K | #95 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 214K | #106 |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 6
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- Where does the name Jenkins come from?
- patronymic from Jenkin. Jenkins is one of the most common names in England, especially southwestern England, but is also especially associated with Wales. Recorded by Dictionary of American Family Names.
- What does the name Jenkins mean?
- Recorded meaning: patronymic from Jenkin.
- How do you pronounce Jenkins?
- A machine transcription gives /dʒɛŋkɪnz/ (IPA) for English.
- In which country does Jenkins have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 919 thousand people named Jenkins in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled jenkins.
- How common is the name Jenkins?
- In the United States, the national register counted 222,653 people named Jenkins in 2010, about 1 in 1.5 thousand residents.
- How common is Jenkins compared with other names?
- In Åland Islands, Jenkins is the 25th most common surname of 1,503 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Jenkins?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/jenkinsThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Jenkins” — the 25th most common surname in Åland Islands. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.