Jensen (surname)

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Jensen is a Danish and Norwegian originally patronymic surname, literally meaning son of Jens. Today however it is used as a generic surname for both men and women. The prefix Jens- is the most common Danish version of the biblical Ioanne (English: John). Jensen is the most common surname in Denmark where it is shared by about 5% (288,050 people as of 1 January 2007) of the population. Since 1 January 2001 the number of people in Denmark with the surname Jensen has been reduced from 312,396 as people has changed to more unique surnames. It should be mentioned, that people called for example Uffe Ellemann-Jensen or Jens Martin Jensen Vestergaard are not counted as people having the surname Jensen by Statistics Denmark^[1].

Jensen is also very common in Norway, where it is the ninth commonest surname, but nevertheless shared by about 0.5% of the population (plus 0.1% spelled Jenssen)^[2]. The name is also in use in the Faroe Islands. The frequent occurrences of Jensen as a given name outside Scandinavia, mainly Germany, Great Britain, Canada, the U.S.A. and southeast Asia^[3], is due to immigration from the Nordic Countries. Immigrants to English-speaking countries often spelled it Jenson.