In 1953 Jenness was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 1962, Jenness was awarded the Massey Medal by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, and in 1968 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada. Between 1935 and 1968, he was awarded five honorary doctorate degrees. In 1973 the Canadian government designated him a Person of National Historic Significance and in the same year the Diamond Jenness Secondary School in Hay River was named after him. In 1978 the Canadian Government named the middle peninsula on the west coast of Victoria Island for him, and in 2004 his name was used for a rock examined by the Mars exploration rover Opportunity.