Humanverse

Jeannene vs Jeannette

American parents have registered 69,300 Jeannettes since 1880, against 683 Jeannenes. Jeannette is still ahead, with 24 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Jeannene against Jeannette, 1880 to 2025 0 300 600 900 1.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Jeannene Jeannette

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

Jeannette 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 1960, when Jeannene had 27 and Jeannette had 938.

Side by side

  Jeannene Jeannette
Total US births 68369,300
Most in one year 271,113
Babies in 2025 under 524
Estimated living today 45033,000
Median age today 6664
Peak year 19601917
Best rank 2,246th girls177th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked5,238th
First recorded 19291880
Girls / boys 683 / 069,251 / 49

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 Jeannenes alive today are over 66; half the Jeannettes are over 64. That is 2 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Jeannene and Jeannette.