Janson
Masculine · “Son of Jan”
Janson is son of Jan, and Jan is John in Dutch, Polish, Czech and Scandinavian. It is a surname first — Dutch and Scandinavian families carried it — and an American first name second, arriving with the general surname fashion of the twentieth century.
How old is the name Janson?
Janson first appears in US birth records in 1958 — 67 years ago. The typical Janson alive today was born around 1999, making them about 26 years old. About 1,100 people named Janson are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Janson most popular?
Janson peaked in 1982, reaching #1734 nationally. Today it ranks #5399, 3,665 places below that high. See the whole 1982 chart.
Where it comes from
From Yôḥānān to Janson
The story of Janson
Patronymic surnames formed on Jan are among the commonest in the Netherlands, Belgium and Scandinavia — Jansen and Janssen are the most frequent surnames in the Netherlands and Denmark respectively — and they arrived in America with Dutch and Scandinavian settlement. Their English cousin Johnson took the same path. As a given name Janson is American and modern: it appears in the birth records from the 1960s, peaks in 1982, and belongs to the surname-name movement rather than to any Dutch or Scandinavian community. It also functions as a respelling of Jaxon and Jansen in later decades.
Meaning
Son of Jan; God is gracious
From the given name Jan, the Dutch, Polish, Czech and Scandinavian form of John, from Hebrew Yôḥānān, God is gracious, with the patronymic -son. The reading is settled through the chain. Janson, Jansen, Janssen and Johnson are all the same formation on the same name in different languages.
How the name formed
- Yôḥānān
- Jan
- Janson
Related forms: Jansen · Janssen · Johnson · Jansson
Pronouncing Janson
JAN-sun
Two syllables, stress on the first. In Dutch and Scandinavian the j is a y, giving YAHN-sen, which almost no American bearer uses.
Nicknames for Janson
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
- 1958
- Most boys named
- 198233 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1734reached in 1982
- Change vs 2024
- −19.0%17 in 2025, from 21
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.
Janson in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Jansen in Dutch — spelling variant
- Janssen in Danish — spelling variant
- Johnson in English — related form
- Jansson in Swedish — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Kentucky, Pennsylvania.
Jansons among us
people named Janson are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 100,475 born in 2025 was named Janson
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 Sandford test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Janson's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Sandford climbed just as high around 1947, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Sandford's path sketches the road Janson is walking now.
Janson 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
Janson beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Janson in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled and shared with one of the largest name families in the world.
- Jan and Jay are both ready-made short forms.
- Everyone can say and spell it after one hearing.
- Janson, Jansen, Jaxon and Jaxson will all be written for each other.
- It reads as a surname and will be assumed to be one on forms.
- The Dutch and Scandinavian pronunciation is entirely different.
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What they receive
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Janson
Masculine · #5399 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jansons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Janson are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Janson in 2025?
- Janson ranks #5399 among US boy names in 2025, with 17 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Janson?
- About 1 in every 100,475 US boys born in 2025 was named Janson — 17 in all.
- Will my child share the name Janson with classmates?
- Janson will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Janson
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Frazier#5399 · Franz#5399 · Demetrio#5399 · Rolan#5399 · Rayvon#5399 · Riddick#5399 · Laramie#5399 · Soloman#5399
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Janson? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Janson and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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