Humanverse

Janaiya vs Jane

American parents have registered 381,009 Janes since 1880, against 565 Janaiyas. Jane is still ahead, with 1,380 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Janaiya against Jane, 1880 to 2025 0 2.5k 5k 7.5k 10k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Janaiya Jane

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

Jane has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2007, when Janaiya had 54 and Jane had 775.

Side by side

  Janaiya Jane
Total US births 565381,009
Most in one year 549,961
Babies in 2025 under 51,380
Estimated living today 560207,000
Median age today 1869
Peak year 20071947
Best rank 3,168th girls36th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked221st
First recorded 19981880
Girls / boys 565 / 0379,876 / 1,133

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 Janes alive today are over 69; half the Janaiyas are over 18. That is 51 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: Janaiya and Jane.