Humanverse

Janice vs Janise

American parents have registered 407,605 Janices since 1880, against 2,084 Janises. Janice is still ahead, with 70 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Janice Janise

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 2006, when Janice had 260 and Janise had 30.

Side by side

  Janice Janise
Total US births 407,6052,084
Most in one year 15,98154
Babies in 2025 708
Estimated living today 273,0001,800
Median age today 7144
Peak year 19511953
Best rank 21st girls1,318th girls
Rank in 2025 2,514th10,917th
First recorded 18941933
Girls / boys 406,448 / 1,1572,084 / 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 Janices alive today are over 71; half the Janises are over 44. That is 27 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: Janice and Janise.