Meaning & Origin
a female given name used since 1970
Yesenia is a girl's and boy's baby name of Spanish origin, from the 1970 telenovela of the same name, where Yesenia was a spirited Romani woman — the name itself may derive from a type of palm tree in Spanish-speaking regions or from a regional dialect term. It became enormously popular throughout Latin America after the show's broadcast.
Yesenia is one of the rare names created almost entirely by popular culture — a telenovela gave it to the world and Latin American families embraced it completely. It's a name with a specific cultural moment of origin, carrying the warmth of that Latin American television tradition.