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
Census
Jeanice in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 978 people with the first name Jeanice, which placed it at #12,647 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
#12,647
National first-name rank
People counted
978
978 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
55.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jeanice
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jeanice is White at 55.0%. The next largest groups are Black (23.9%) and Hispanic (11.6%). 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 Jeanice 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 Jeanice at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White55.0% · 538
- Black or African American23.9% · 234
- Hispanic or Latino11.6% · 113
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.2% · 41
- Two or more races3.6% · 35
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.7% · 17
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.
How common was Jeanice in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 978 people with the name Jeanice, or 0.32 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,647 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 Jeanice 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 Jeanice?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jeanice appears almost entirely female. Of the 982 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Jeanice?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jeanice is White at 55.0%. The next largest groups are Black (23.9%) and Hispanic (11.6%). 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 Jeanice most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jeanice in the 2020 Census, accounting for 55.0% (538 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 Jeanice in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
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.
Is Jeanice still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jeanice 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 Jeanice 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 share the name Jeanice?
You can see how many people share the name Jeanice on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.