Janise
Feminine · “God is gracious”
Janice was invented for a novel. In 1899 an American writer published a bestseller about the Revolution and called his heroine Janice Meredith, building the name out of Jane. It sold in the hundreds of thousands, and within a generation Janice was on birth certificates across the country.
How old is the name Janise?
Janise first appears in US birth records in 1933 — 92 years ago. The typical Janise alive today was born around 1977, making them about 48 years old. About 1,900 people named Janise are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Janise most popular?
Janise peaked in 1953, reaching #1318 nationally. Today it ranks #10917, 9,599 places below that high. See the whole 1953 chart.
Where it comes from
From Yochanan to Janise
The story of Janise
Names invented in books usually stay in books. This one did not, partly because it was built out of a name people already had — an author who invents Vanessa or Wendy is asking readers to accept something new, and an author who invents Janice is only asking them to accept an ending. The novel was dramatized, filmed and reprinted for thirty years, and by the middle of the twentieth century almost nobody using the name knew where it came from. The s spelling arrived later and for a plain reason: the c in Janice is soft, which English readers have to work out from the following e, and an s says it outright.
Meaning
God is gracious
Janice is an extension of Jane, which is the English feminine of John, from Hebrew Yochanan: God is gracious, or God has shown favor. The -ice ending was added by the novelist and carries no meaning of its own. Janise is the same name with the c written as an s, which changes nothing you can hear.
How the name formed
- Yochanan
- Jane
- Janice
- Janise
Pronouncing Janise
juh-NEESE
Two syllables, stress on the second, with a clean s at the end. JAN-iss, front-loaded, is the older American saying and is still used; the spelling with an s tends to pull people toward the first.
Nicknames for Janise
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
- 1933
- Most girls named
- 195651 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1318reached in 1953
- Change vs 2023
- +33.3%8 in 2025, from 6
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.
Janises among us
people named Janise are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 200,908 born in 2025 was named Janise
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Janise
- #10917
- Janise on the 2025 chart
- #882
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Janise went to 8 girls in 2025, but Janice 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 — 10,035 places above the chart.
- Janice70
- Janise8
About 1 girl in 20,606 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 200,908 for Janise 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 Azilee test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Janise's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Azilee climbed just as high around 1903, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Azilee's path sketches the road Janise is walking now.
Janise 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
Janise beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Janise in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled Hebrew meaning inherited whole from Jane.
- The s ending removes the guesswork the c leaves behind.
- Jan works immediately and needs no explanation.
- Janice is far commoner and this spelling will be corrected toward it constantly.
- The stress is genuinely unsettled between the two syllables.
- Both spellings are strongly represented among older generations and carry the middle of the last century with them.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Janise
Feminine · #10917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Janises are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,900 people named Janise are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Janise?
- Janise is one of 2 recorded spellings. Janice is the more common one — 70 births in 2025 against 8 for Janise.
- How popular is the name Janise in 2025?
- Janise ranks #10917 among US girl names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Janise?
- About 1 in every 200,908 US girls born in 2025 was named Janise — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Janise with classmates?
- Janise will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Janise
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Edythe#10917 · Tessie#10917 · Drusilla#10917 · Eugenie#10917 · Ivah#10917 · Karri#10917 · Claribel#10917 · Myrtle#10917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Janise? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Janise and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Cast your vote
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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