Humanverse

Jan vs Janyiah

American parents have registered 76,934 Jans since 1880, against 516 Janyiahs. Jan is still ahead, with 52 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Jan Janyiah

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

Jan has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1902 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2019, when Jan had 59 and Janyiah had 21.

Side by side

  Jan Janyiah
Total US births 76,934516
Most in one year 3,76142
Babies in 2025 525
Estimated living today 57,000510
Median age today 6715
Peak year 19562009
Best rank 136th girls3,737th girls
Rank in 2025 14,942nd14,942nd
First recorded 19021999
Girls / boys 54,531 / 22,403516 / 0

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 Janyiahs are over 15. That is 52 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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