Jannet
A feminine name of French origin meaning "God's gracious gift".
Name Census estimates that about 2,029 living Americans carry the first name Jannet. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Jannet today is around 38 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jannet births was 1990 (84 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jannet. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Jannet with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.0K
~ 1 in 168,928 Americans
Peak year
1990
84 babies that year
Average age
38
years old
2024 SSA rank
#16,241
Tracked since 1921
Census
Jannet in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,098 people with the first name Jannet, which placed it at #5,514 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#5,514
National first-name rank
People counted
3.1K
3,098 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
62.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jannet
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jannet is Hispanic at 62.5%. The next largest groups are White (21.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (7.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Jannet described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Jannet at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino62.5% · 1,935
- White21.7% · 671
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.3% · 225
- Black or African American6.9% · 214
- Two or more races1.5% · 45
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 8
Popularity
Jannet: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jannet from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 581 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jannet by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Jannet during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jannets live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Jannet, while Florida, Illinois, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 229 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jannet
The name Jannet has its origins in the Latin language, derived from the masculine name Joannes, which in turn comes from the Hebrew name Yochanan, meaning "Yahweh is gracious." The name gained popularity during the Middle Ages, particularly in Western Europe.
Jannet is a feminine variant of the more common John, and its earliest recorded use can be traced back to the 12th century in various regions of France and England. The name was often spelled in various ways, including Jannette, Janetta, and Jannet.
In medieval literature, one of the earliest references to the name Jannet can be found in the 13th-century English romance "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," where a character named Jannet appears as a maiden at King Arthur's court.
Throughout history, several notable women have borne the name Jannet. One of the earliest examples is Jannet Douglas, a 15th-century Scottish noblewoman who married Sir Patrick Hepburn, 1st Earl of Bothwell, and played a significant role in Scottish politics during the reign of King James III.
Another prominent figure was Jannet Geddes, a Scottish presbyterian who, in 1637, reportedly threw a stool at the minister in St Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh, sparking the beginnings of the Bishops' Wars and the eventual outbreak of the English Civil War.
In the 17th century, Jannet Rendall was a famous Scottish poet and author, known for her work "The Poetical Recreations of Mrs. Jannet Rendall," published in 1692. She was one of the earliest known female poets in Scotland.
During the 18th century, Jannet Keith, Countess of Galloway, was a Scottish aristocrat who served as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Anne and played a significant role in the social and political circles of the time.
In the 19th century, Jannet Rennie was a Scottish botanist and artist, known for her contributions to the study of mosses and her intricate botanical illustrations.
While the name Jannet has become less common in modern times, it has a rich history spanning centuries, with notable bearers from various walks of life, including nobility, literature, religion, and science.
People
Jannet + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jannet as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with J
Other first names starting with J with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Jannet: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jannet?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,029 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jannet going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 168,928 US residents.
Is Jannet a common name?
We classify Jannet as "Rare". It ranks above 93.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,318 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jannet most popular?
The single biggest year for Jannet was 1990, when 84 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jannet is about 38 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jannet in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,098 people with the name Jannet, or 1.03 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,514 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Jannet in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Jannet?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jannet appears almost entirely female. Of the 3,095 people counted with this name, 100.0% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Jannet?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jannet is Hispanic at 62.5%. The next largest groups are White (21.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (7.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Jannet most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Jannet in the 2020 Census, accounting for 62.5% (1,935 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Jannet in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jannet a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Jannet in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Jannet still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jannet in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Jannet can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Jannet?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.