Jannie
A feminine Dutch diminutive form of the French name Jeanne.
Name Census estimates that about 4,928 living Americans carry the first name Jannie. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Jannie today is around 66 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jannie births was 1924 (281 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jannie. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Jannie is about 66 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Jannies were born before 1970.
People living today
4.9K
~ 1 in 69,552 Americans
Peak year
1924
281 babies that year
Average age
66
years old
1938 SSA rank
#3,342
Tracked since 1880
Census
Jannie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,905 people with the first name Jannie, which placed it at #3,969 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
#3,969
National first-name rank
People counted
4.9K
4,905 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
51.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jannie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jannie is Black at 51.4%. The next largest groups are White (30.6%) 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 Jannie 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 Jannie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American51.4% · 2,522
- White30.6% · 1,502
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.3% · 360
- Hispanic or Latino7.3% · 356
- Two or more races2.8% · 138
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 27
Gender
Gender distribution for Jannie
Out of the 14,847 babies given the name Jannie since 1880, 99.8% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Jannie as a male name
- Ranked #3,342 in 1938
- 6 male births in 1938
- Peak: 1928 (7 births)
Jannie as a female name
- Ranked #11,546 in 2021
- 8 female births in 2021
- Peak: 1924 (281 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jannie appears almost entirely female. Of the 4,900 people counted with this name, 99.5% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Jannie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jannie from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 2,540 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jannie 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 Jannie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jannies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 23 states and territories. South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama recorded the most babies named Jannie, while West Virginia, Maryland, Ohio recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 461 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jannie
The name Jannie originates from the Dutch language and is a diminutive form of the name Johanna, which is the feminine version of the Hebrew name Yochanan, meaning "God is gracious." The name Jannie was particularly popular in the Netherlands during the 16th and 17th centuries.
Jannie is also a variation of the name Jane, which is derived from the French version of Johanna, Jeanne. The name Jane has been used in English-speaking countries since the Middle Ages and was particularly popular during the Renaissance period.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Jannie can be found in Dutch historical records from the 17th century. In 1632, Jannie van Duijnen was born in Amsterdam, and she went on to become a prominent figure in the Dutch Golden Age as a successful businesswoman and art collector.
Another notable figure with the name Jannie was Jannie Hendriksz, a Dutch Golden Age painter who lived from 1636 to 1695. She was known for her still-life paintings and was one of the few female artists to achieve recognition during that time.
In the 19th century, Jannie Hofmeyr, a South African educator and author, was born in 1867. She played a significant role in the establishment of Afrikaans as a written language and published several works in Afrikaans.
During the 20th century, Jannie Ferreira, a South African rugby union player, gained recognition for his achievements on the field. He was born in 1958 and played for the Springboks, the national rugby team of South Africa, earning 37 caps between 1980 and 1992.
Another notable figure with the name Jannie is Jannie du Plessis, a South African professional rugby union player who was born in 1982. He has represented the Springboks and played for several clubs, including the Sharks and the Lions.
People
Jannie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jannie 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
Jannie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jannie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,928 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jannie 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 69,552 US residents.
Is Jannie a common name?
We classify Jannie as "Rare". It ranks above 96.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 14,847 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jannie most popular?
The single biggest year for Jannie was 1924, when 281 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jannie is about 66 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jannie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,905 people with the name Jannie, or 1.62 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,969 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 Jannie 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 Jannie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jannie appears almost entirely female. Of the 4,900 people counted with this name, 99.5% 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 Jannie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jannie is Black at 51.4%. The next largest groups are White (30.6%) 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 Jannie most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Jannie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 51.4% (2,522 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 Jannie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jannie a female name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Jannie 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 Jannie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jannie 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 Jannie 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 named Jannie?
Want to know how many Americans are named Jannie? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.