The surname has Danish, Norwegian, and North German origins. It comes from the personal name Jens, which is a reduced form of Johannes, or John. It also means son of Jens. It is Denmark’s most common surname.

The regions with the most Jensen surnames are Denmark, Germany, Norway and Sweden.

In England most Jensen families live in the northeast section in the counties of Yorkshire, Northumberland and Durham. The county of Fife in Scotland has an extremely high ratio of those with the Jensen surname.

The states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa, California, Utah and New York have higher populations of Jensen surnames.

Nearly half of the Jensen families in the 1880s were farmers.

Famous: Maren Kawehilani Jensen (actress), Johannes Vilhem Jensen (a Danish author), Erik Jensen (professional football player), Anders Thomas Jensen (Danish screenwriter and film director), Georg Arthur Jensen (a Danish silversmith), Alicia Tully Jensen (actress), Darren Jensen (a professional Canadian hockey player), Jakob Jensen (a top super designer at Bang & Olufsen), Alexander Viggo Jensen (first Danish Olympic champion), Niels Peter Jensen (19th century Danish composer and musician) and Luke and Murphy Jensen (brothers who are professional tennis players).