Meaning and history
This name comes from the Norman French form of the Welsh name Gwenhwyfar, meaning “white phantom,” ultimately from the old Celtic roots * windos, “white” (modern Welsh gwen), and * sēbros, “phantom, magical being.” In Arthurian legend, she was the beautiful wife of King Arthur, and medieval accounts give different roles to her: Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote that Mordred seduced her before the battle of Camlann, leading to the deaths of both Mordred and Arthur, while Chrétien de Troyes described an adulterous affair with Sir Lancelot. The Cornish form, Jennifer, has become popular in the English-speaking world.
20062006: 73 births, rank #2,512
2007: 61 births, rank #2,930
2008: 59 births, rank #2,957
2009: 62 births, rank #2,826
2010: 58 births, rank #2,938
20112011: 92 births, rank #2,088
2012: 101 births, rank #1,940
2013: 127 births, rank #1,666
2014: 165 births, rank #1,391
2015: 176 births, rank #1,350
20162016: 140 births, rank #1,580
2017: 192 births, rank #1,240
2018: 151 births, rank #1,451
2019: 188 births, rank #1,244
2020: 249 births, rank #1,011
20212021: 268 births, rank #967
2022: 299 births, rank #917
2023: 251 births, rank #1,008
2024: 279 births, rank #945
20252025: 295 births, rank #898
Guinevere rose from #946 to #899 for girls between 2024 and 2025. Its highest annual birth count came in 2022, with 299 births.