Jensen (surname)

Jensen Danish pronunciation: [ˈjɛnsn̩] is a Danish, Norwegian and North Frisian originally patronymic surname, literally meaning son of Jens.[1][2] 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 have 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.[3]

Jensen is also very common in Norway, where it is the ninth most common surname, but nevertheless shared by about 0.5% of the population (plus 0.1% spelled Jenssen).[4] The name is also in use in the Faroe Islands and in Schleswig-Holstein. The frequent occurrences of Jensen as a given name outside Scandinavia, mainly Great Britain, Canada, the U.S.A. and southeast Asia,[5] is due to immigration from the Nordic countries. Immigrants to English-speaking countries often changed the spelling to Jenson in order to accommodate English orthographic rules.

List of persons with the surname

Contents :

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

T

U

V

W

See also

References

  1. ↑ Map of German telephone directory entries]
  2. ↑ Faltings, Volkert F., ed. (1985). Kleine Namenkunde für Föhr und Amrum (in German). Hamburg: Helmut Buske. p. 51. ISBN 3-87118-680-5.
  3. ↑ . Statistics Denmark
  4. ↑ Statistics Norway
  5. ↑ University of Copenhagen - Name Research Section