Humanverse

Janelly vs Janie

American parents have registered 75,874 Janies since 1880, against 2,476 Janellys. Janie is still ahead, with 168 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Janelly against Janie, 1880 to 2025 0 500 1k 1.5k 2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Janelly Janie

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

Janie 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 2018, when Janelly had 108 and Janie had 124.

Side by side

  Janelly Janie
Total US births 2,47675,874
Most in one year 1081,853
Babies in 2025 49168
Estimated living today 2,50042,000
Median age today 1566
Peak year 20181947
Best rank 1,869th girls161st girls
Rank in 2025 3,211th1,326th
First recorded 19861880
Girls / boys 2,476 / 075,598 / 276

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 Janies alive today are over 66; half the Janellys are over 15. 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: Janelly and Janie.