Jeanice
A feminine name derived from Jane or Jean, possibly meaning "God is gracious".
Name Census estimates that about 825 living Americans carry the first name Jeanice. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Jeanice today is around 55 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jeanice births was 1960 (40 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jeanice. 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.
People living today
825
~ 1 in 415,460 Americans
Peak year
1960
40 babies that year
Average age
55
years old
2011 SSA rank
#17,969
Tracked since 1915
Popularity
Jeanice: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jeanice from the 1910s through to the 2010s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 233 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jeanice 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 Jeanice during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jeanices live
Origin
Meaning and history of Jeanice
The given name Jeanice is a feminine name derived from the French name Jeanne, which in turn originated from the Hebrew name Johanna. Johanna itself is a feminine form of the Hebrew name Yohanan, meaning "Yahweh is gracious" or "God is gracious."
The name Jeanne has been popular in France and other French-speaking regions for centuries. It gained widespread usage during the Middle Ages, particularly after the famous story of Joan of Arc, whose French name was Jeanne d'Arc. Jeanne d'Arc, also known as the Maid of Orléans, was a peasant girl who played a crucial role in the Hundred Years' War, leading French forces against the English before being captured and burned at the stake in 1431.
The variant spelling Jeanice emerged as a combination of the French name Jeanne and the English suffix "-ice," which is derived from the Old French "-ise" or "-ice." This suffix was often added to feminine names to create a more anglicized version.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Jeanice can be found in the 16th century. Jeanice de Montfort, born in 1545, was a French noblewoman and lady-in-waiting at the court of King Henry IV of France.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Jeanice. Jeanice Brooks (1912-1995) was an American actress and singer who appeared in numerous films and television shows during the 1930s and 1940s. Jeanice Barcelo (born 1955) is a renowned American artist and sculptor, known for her large-scale public artworks.
In literature, Jeanice is the name of a character in the novel "The Bride of Lammermoor" by Sir Walter Scott, published in 1819. The character Jeanice is portrayed as a loyal servant to the protagonist, Lucy Ashton.
Another notable bearer of the name is Jeanice Kermode Armstrong (1919-2012), a Canadian politician who served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1959 to 1966.
Lastly, Jeanice M. Hill (born 1935) is an American author and educator who has written several children's books, including "The Life Story of Ida B. Wells" and "Aunt Jeanice's Bag of Dreams."
People
Jeanice + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jeanice 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
Jeanice: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jeanice?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 825 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jeanice 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 415,460 US residents.
Is Jeanice a common name?
We classify Jeanice as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,255 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jeanice most popular?
The single biggest year for Jeanice was 1960, when 40 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jeanice is about 55 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Jeanice a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Jeanice 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.