Humanverse

Jan vs Janee

American parents have registered 76,934 Jans since 1880, against 3,262 Janees. Jan is still ahead, with 52 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Jan against Janee, 1880 to 2025 0 1k 2k 3k 4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Jan Janee

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 119 years in which either name was published, Jan for 117 years and Janee for 2 years. The lead changed hands 4 times.

Side by side

  Jan Janee
Total US births 76,9343,262
Most in one year 3,761168
Babies in 2025 526
Estimated living today 57,0003,100
Median age today 6736
Peak year 19561989
Best rank 136th girls1,051st girls
Rank in 2025 14,942nd13,208th
First recorded 19021946
Girls / boys 54,531 / 22,4033,256 / 6

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Jans alive today are over 67; half the Janees are over 36. That is 31 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Jan and Janee.