Jean
A feminine form of John, of French origin meaning "God is gracious".
Name Census estimates that about 168,190 living Americans carry the first name Jean. It is a predominantly female name (94.9% of registrations). The average person named Jean today is around 68 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jean births was 1927 (12,775 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jean. 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 Jean is about 68 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Jeans were born before 1968.
- • Compared to the 1920s, recent registration numbers for Jean have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
168K
~ 1 in 2,038 Americans
Peak year
1927
12,775 babies that year
Average age
68
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,139
Tracked since 1880
Gender
Gender distribution for Jean
Jean leans heavily female at 94.9% of total registrations, but 24,863 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Jean as a male name
- Ranked #1,139 in 2024
- 184 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1993 (428 births)
Jean as a female name
- Ranked #2,411 in 2024
- 75 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1927 (12,512 births)
Popularity
Jean: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jean from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 108,977 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jean 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 Jean during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 152 | 1,000 | 1,152 |
| 1890s | 185 | 2,396 | 2,581 |
| 1900s | 267 | 5,931 | 6,198 |
| 1910s | 1,352 | 39,284 | 40,636 |
| 1920s | 2,978 | 105,999 | 108,977 |
| 1930s | 2,049 | 94,189 | 96,238 |
| 1940s | 1,573 | 80,364 | 81,937 |
| 1950s | 1,517 | 72,263 | 73,780 |
| 1960s | 1,829 | 37,281 | 39,110 |
| 1970s | 2,228 | 11,027 | 13,255 |
| 1980s | 2,618 | 4,858 | 7,476 |
| 1990s | 2,968 | 1,849 | 4,817 |
| 2000s | 2,617 | 829 | 3,446 |
| 2010s | 1,829 | 707 | 2,536 |
| 2020s | 701 | 373 | 1,074 |
Geography
Where Jeans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois recorded the most babies named Jean, while Nevada, Alaska, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 9,115 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jean
The name Jean has its origins in the Hebrew name Yohanan, meaning "Graced by God" or "Yahweh is gracious". It emerged from the French form of the Latin name Johannes, which is derived from the Greek Ioannes. The name spread throughout Europe during the Christian era.
Jean is a common French name for both males and females. It was one of the most popular names in France during the Middle Ages. The name gained widespread use after John the Baptist and John the Apostle, two important figures in the New Testament of the Bible.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Jean is found in the 12th century French epic poem "The Song of Roland", where it is used as a name for a character. In the 13th century, Jean de Meung was a famous French poet and scholar who co-authored the influential work "Roman de la Rose".
Jean Froissart (c. 1337-1405) was a renowned French chronicler and poet who documented the events of the Hundred Years' War between England and France. Jean Calvin (1509-1564), a French theologian and pastor, was a key figure in the Protestant Reformation and the development of Calvinism.
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, better known as Molière (1622-1673), was a highly influential French playwright and actor who is regarded as one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer, made significant contributions to the fields of political philosophy, education, and music.
Jean-Paul Marat (1743-1793) was a prominent figure in the French Revolution and a radical voice in the Jacobin group. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829) was a French naturalist who proposed one of the first theories of evolution, known as Lamarckism.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Jean
People
Jean + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jean 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
Jean: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jean?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 168,190 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jean 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 2,038 US residents.
Is Jean a common name?
We classify Jean as "Common". It ranks above 99.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 483,213 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jean most popular?
The single biggest year for Jean was 1927, when 12,775 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jean is about 68 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Jean a female name?
Yes, 94.9% of people registered as Jean 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.
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.