Janice
Feminine
Janice is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 406,448 girls against 1,157 boys since 1880. See Janice as a boy name
Janice was invented for a novel and the novel produced a hairstyle, a cocktail and a cigar. A historical romance published at the very end of the nineteenth century sold in enormous numbers, was turned into a play and then a film, and left behind a set of merchandised objects and one name that outlasted all of them.
How old is the name Janice?
Janice first appears in US birth records in 1894 — 131 years ago. The typical Janice alive today was born around 1950, making them about 75 years old. About 284,000 people named Janice are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Janice most popular?
Janice peaked in 1951, reaching #21 nationally. Today it ranks #2514, 2,493 places below that high. See the whole 1951 chart.
Where it comes from
From Jane to Janice
The story of Janice
The book was a bestseller of the kind that no longer exists, selling somewhere around two hundred thousand copies in its first year and generating an entire economy of tie-ins: a way of arranging the hair was named after the heroine, so were a drink and a brand of cigar, and there was a stage adaptation and a silent film. All of that is completely forgotten. The name is not. It went into the American stock immediately, peaked half a century later, and is carried by hundreds of thousands of women, almost none of whom have heard of the novel. That is the usual fate of a name with a known author: the source vanishes and the invention stays.
Meaningnot established
Not established
There is no meaning, because the name was made. It is usually explained as Jane with an ending, and the ending corresponds to nothing in particular; coined names do not acquire meanings by being used, however long they stay in circulation.
How the name formed
- Jane
- Janice
Pronouncing Janice
JAN-iss
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The final s is unvoiced, which is what the c is there to guarantee; a spelling with an s would invite a z and produce a different sound.
Nicknames for Janice
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1894
- Most girls named
- 194715,409 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #21reached in 1951
- Change vs 2022
- −22.2%70 in 2025, from 90
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Janice in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Janices among us
people named Janice are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 22,961 born in 2025 was named Janice
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Janice
- #2514
- Janice on the 2025 chart
- #882
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Janice went to 70 girls in 2025, but Janise is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 78, which makes it the 882nd most-given girls’ name of the year — 1,632 places above the chart.
- Janice70
- Janise8
About 1 girl in 20,606 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 22,961 for Janice itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Josephine test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Janice's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Josephine climbed just as high around 1916, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Josephine's path sketches the road Janice is walking now.
Janice sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Janice is headed
Janice should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Janice beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Janice in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The spoken name is completely established and never needs to be repeated.
- Jan is a short, plain everyday form available from the first day.
- It has a documented author and a documented year, which very few names can offer.
- The record carries it for boys in small numbers, so it is not quite an absolute signal.
- It is very strongly dated to the middle of the last century in American ears.
- There is no meaning to give a child, because the name was made rather than inherited.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Janice to the vote.
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What they receive
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Janice
Feminine · #2514 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Janices are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 284,000 people named Janice are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Janice?
- Janice is the most-used spelling in US records — 70 of the 78 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Janise.
- How popular is the name Janice in 2025?
- Janice ranks #2514 among US girl names in 2025, with 70 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Janice?
- About 1 in every 22,961 US girls born in 2025 was named Janice — 70 in all.
- Will my child share the name Janice with classmates?
- Janice will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Janice
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Syeda#2514 · Gracyn#2514 · Imogene#2514 · Orla#2514 · Annalisa#2514 · Nazareth#2514 · Susannah#2514 · Maysen#2514
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Janice? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Janice and another name?
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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