Humanverse

Janeli vs Janelle

American parents have registered 56,967 Janelles since 1880, against 582 Janelis. Janelle is still ahead, with 340 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Janeli against Janelle, 1880 to 2025 0 400 800 1.2k 1.6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Janeli Janelle

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

Janelle has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1912 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2025, when Janeli had 47 and Janelle had 340.

Side by side

  Janeli Janelle
Total US births 58256,967
Most in one year 471,421
Babies in 2025 47340
Estimated living today 58053,000
Median age today 1637
Peak year 20251979
Best rank 3,296th girls186th girls
Rank in 2025 3,296th799th
First recorded 19891912
Girls / boys 582 / 056,881 / 86

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 Janelles alive today are over 37; half the Janelis are over 16. That is 21 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: Janeli and Janelle.