Jemma
Meaning
variant of Gemma, meaning gem, precious stone
The story
Jemma is a variant of Gemma, and Gemma is a medieval Italian nickname meaning "gem, precious stone", borne, Behind the Name notes, by the wife of the thirteenth-century poet Dante Alighieri. The J-spelling has its own quiet American history: a couple dozen girls in the 1910s, then thin decades, a few of them absent from the published record entirely, up to about 200 in the 1990s, and then the shift arrived all at once: about 630 in the 2000s, about 4,460 in the 2010s, and about 2,490 so far this decade. The G-spelling keeps its own line and its own page. A jewel in plain Italian, a footnote in Dante's household, and an American record that waited a hundred years before treating the J as the fashionable way in.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Jemma peaked in the 2010s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure.
When you meet Jemma
Most people given the name Jemma in the United States are children or teenagers today. The name belongs to this generation.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Jemma deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Jemma truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Jemma fits with your family’s names and surname.
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