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Janalee vs Janice

American parents have registered 407,605 Janices since 1880, against 1,033 Janalees. Janice is still ahead, with 70 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Janalee against Janice, 1880 to 2025 0 4k 8k 12k 16k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Janalee Janice

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

Janice has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1894 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2021, when Janalee had 8 and Janice had 87.

Side by side

  Janalee Janice
Total US births 1,033407,605
Most in one year 3115,981
Babies in 2025 under 570
Estimated living today 890273,000
Median age today 5471
Peak year 19621951
Best rank 2,113th girls21st girls
Rank in 2025 unranked2,514th
First recorded 19341894
Girls / boys 1,033 / 0406,448 / 1,157

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 Janices alive today are over 71; half the Janalees are over 54. That is 17 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: Janalee and Janice.