Jeanette
Masculine · “God is gracious”
Jeanette is given to girls far more often — 163,440 girls against 537 boys since 1880. See Jeanette as a girl name
Jeanette is the little Jeanne of French, a classic American girl's name. It sang its way onto movie screens with one of Hollywood's great duet partnerships, and a Pennsylvania glass town carries it.
How old is the name Jeanette?
Jeanette first appears in US birth records in 1918 — 107 years ago. The typical Jeanette alive today was born around 1951, making them about 74 years old. About 300 people named Jeanette are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jeanette most popular?
Jeanette peaked in 1935, reaching #1656 nationally. See the whole 1935 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yohanan to Jeanette
The story of Jeanette
Jeanette MacDonald, a soprano from Philadelphia, starred with the baritone Nelson Eddy in a run of operetta films, Naughty Marietta and Rose-Marie among them, and audiences called them America's Singing Sweethearts. In western Pennsylvania, a glassmaker founded a factory town and named it Jeannette after his wife, and for decades it made glass for the whole country. The name is recorded for a very few boys, but it is a woman's name everywhere.
Meaning
God is gracious, through Jeanne
Jeanette is a French diminutive of Jeanne, the feminine of Jean, John, from Hebrew Yohanan, God is gracious.
How the name formed
- Yohanan
- Jeanne
- Jeannette
- Jeanette
Related forms: Jeannette · Juanita · Janet
Pronouncing Jeanette
juh-NET
Stress on the second syllable.
Nicknames for Jeanette
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
- 1918
- Most boys named
- 193518 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1656reached in 1935
- Change vs 1992
- −28.6%5 in 1995, from 7
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.
Jeanette in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Jeannette in French — same name
- Juanita in Spanish — related form
- Janet in English — related form
Jeanettes among us
people named Jeanette are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Jeanette sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It has a clear meaning and long history.
- It is familiar without being common among babies now.
- People will write Jeannette or Janette.
- Many associate it with an older generation of women.
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Jeanette
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Jeanettes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 300 people named Jeanette are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Jeanette in 2025?
- Jeanette is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Jeanette with classmates?
- Jeanette will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More J names
The most-given names starting with J, all years combined.
James#6 · John#23 · Joseph#29 · Joshua#66 · Jason#165 · Jacob#43 · Jeffrey#552 · Jonathan#89
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jeanette? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jeanette and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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