Jeannette
Feminine · “God is gracious”
Jeannette is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 69,251 girls against 49 boys since 1880.
Jeannette is a French diminutive of Jeanne, which is the French of Joan, which is the feminine of John. It is several steps from the Hebrew name at the bottom of it and still recognizably the same word.
How old is the name Jeannette?
Jeannette was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Jeannette alive today was born around 1942, making them about 83 years old. About 34,500 people named Jeannette are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jeannette most popular?
Jeannette peaked in 1916, reaching #173 nationally. Today it ranks #5238, 5,065 places below that high. See the whole 1916 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yochanan to Jeannette
The story of Jeannette
French built diminutives freely, and Jeannette was one of the most productive: a Jeanne in the village became a Jeannette without anyone deciding anything. It crossed into English use in the nineteenth century as a name in its own right, helped by a general English appetite for French forms, and it reached America both that way and directly with French-speaking families in Louisiana and New England.
Meaning
God is gracious
The meaning belongs to the Hebrew name Yochanan at the root of the whole family — John, Jean, Jeanne, Jeannette — and is 'God is gracious'. The -ette ending is a French diminutive suffix and adds smallness or affection rather than sense.
How the name formed
- Yochanan
- Johanna
- Jeanne
- Jeannette
Related forms: Jeannette · Jeanette · Jeanette
Pronouncing Jeannette
juh-NET
Two syllables, stress on the second. The French gives the first syllable a softer zh sound at the start.
Nicknames for Jeannette
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 19211,094 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #173reached in 1916
- Change vs 2022
- +33.3%24 in 2025, from 18
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.
Jeannette in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Jeannette in French — same name
- Jeanette in Dutch — spelling variant
- Jeanette in German — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Jeannettes among us
people named Jeannette are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 66,969 born in 2025 was named Jeannette
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Jeannette
- #5238
- Jeannette on the 2025 chart
- #861
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Jeannette went to 24 girls in 2025, but Jeanette is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 99, which makes it the 861st most-given girls’ name of the year — 4,377 places above the chart.
- Jeanette75
- Jeannette24
About 1 girl in 16,235 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 66,969 for Jeannette 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 Elva test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jeannette's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Elva climbed just as high around 1901, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Elva's path sketches the road Jeannette is walking now.
Jeannette 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
Jeannette beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jeannette in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Nettie and Jean are both ready short forms with quite different registers.
- It belongs to the largest name family in the Western world, so it connects to Johns, Joans, Jeans and Hannahs across an extended family.
- The meaning is clear, documented and not contested.
- The number of n's and t's varies — Jeannette, Jeanette, Jennette — and every version is in use.
- The -ette ending is a diminutive, which some people read as making the name smaller than the plain Jeanne.
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What they receive
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Jeannette
Feminine · #5238 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jeannettes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 34,500 people named Jeannette are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Jeannette?
- Jeannette is one of 2 recorded spellings. Jeanette is the more common one — 75 births in 2025 against 24 for Jeannette.
- How popular is the name Jeannette in 2025?
- Jeannette ranks #5238 among US girl names in 2025, with 24 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jeannette?
- About 1 in every 66,969 US girls born in 2025 was named Jeannette — 24 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jeannette with classmates?
- Jeannette will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jeannette
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Irena#5238 · Esma#5238 · Dagny#5238 · Venice#5238 · Lisbeth#5238 · Loralie#5238 · Alania#5238 · Erma#5238
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jeannette? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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