Humanverse

Janie vs Janira

American parents have registered 75,874 Janies since 1880, against 740 Janiras. Janie is still ahead, with 168 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Janie Janira

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 2000, when Janie had 208 and Janira had 24.

Side by side

  Janie Janira
Total US births 75,874740
Most in one year 1,85330
Babies in 2025 168under 5
Estimated living today 42,000720
Median age today 6633
Peak year 19471988
Best rank 161st girls3,225th girls
Rank in 2025 1,326thunranked
First recorded 18801972
Girls / boys 75,598 / 276740 / 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 Janies alive today are over 66; half the Janiras are over 33. That is 33 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: Janie and Janira.