Janine
Feminine · “God is gracious”
Janine is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 33,508 girls against 11 boys since 1880.
Janine is a French diminutive of Jeanne, which is the feminine of Jean, which is John — a name reduced and rebuilt three times over, all resting on one Hebrew sentence.
How old is the name Janine?
Janine first appears in US birth records in 1914 — 111 years ago. The typical Janine alive today was born around 1966, making them about 59 years old. About 30,000 people named Janine are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Janine most popular?
Janine peaked in 1960, reaching #231 nationally. Today it ranks #5722, 5,491 places below that high. See the whole 1960 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yohanan to Janine
The story of Janine
John was the most-given man's name in medieval Europe, and French built an unusually large family on it: Jean, Jeanne, Jeannette, Jeannine, Janine. English-speaking countries borrowed several at once in the twentieth century, when French spellings carried a particular polish in American naming. Janine peaked in America in the mid-1960s, alongside Jeannine and Jeanine.
Meaning
God is gracious
From the Hebrew Yohanan, 'the Lord is gracious', through the Latin Johannes and the French Jean and Jeanne. The -ine ending is a French diminutive suffix carrying affection rather than meaning, the same one in Josephine and Christine.
How the name formed
- Yohanan
- Johannes
- Jean
- Jeanne
- Janine
Related forms: Janine · Jeannine · Janine · Giovanna
Pronouncing Janine
juh-NEEN
Two syllables, stress on the second. French gives the first syllable a rounder vowel; English tends to reduce it.
Nicknames for Janine
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
- 1914
- Most girls named
- 19611,288 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #231reached in 1960
- Change vs 2023
- +5.0%21 in 2025, from 20
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.
Janine in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Janine in French — same name
- Jeannine in French — spelling variant
- Janine in Dutch — same name
- Giovanna in Italian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Texas.
Janines among us
people named Janine are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 76,537 born in 2025 was named Janine
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Reba test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Janine's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Reba climbed just as high around 1928, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Reba's path sketches the road Janine is walking now.
Janine 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
Janine beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Janine in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It sits inside the largest name family in Europe, with cousins in every language.
- The end stress gives it a distinct rhythm against a front-stressed surname.
- Jan and Nina are both available and are quite different in feel.
- Janine, Jeannine and Jeanine are all established French spellings.
- It is closely dated to the middle of the twentieth century.
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What they receive
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Janine
Feminine · #5722 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Janines are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 30,000 people named Janine are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Janine in 2025?
- Janine ranks #5722 among US girl names in 2025, with 21 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Janine?
- About 1 in every 76,537 US girls born in 2025 was named Janine — 21 in all.
- Will my child share the name Janine with classmates?
- Janine will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Janine
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rosina#5722 · Delores#5722 · Vaughn#5722 · Roseline#5722 · Loyal#5722 · Missy#5722 · Danitza#5722 · Margret#5722
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Janine? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Janine and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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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