Janece
A feminine form of the French name Jeanne, meaning "God is gracious".
Name Census estimates that about 504 living Americans carry the first name Janece. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Janece today is around 50 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Janece births was 1960 (19 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Janece. 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
504
~ 1 in 680,068 Americans
Peak year
1960
19 babies that year
Average age
50
years old
2007 SSA rank
#16,321
Tracked since 1930
Census
Janece in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 577 people with the first name Janece, which placed it at #18,616 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
#18,616
National first-name rank
People counted
577
577 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
61.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Janece
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Janece is White at 61.5%. The next largest groups are Black (26.7%) and Hispanic (6.9%). 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 Janece 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 Janece at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White61.5% · 355
- Black or African American26.7% · 154
- Hispanic or Latino6.9% · 40
- Two or more races3.6% · 21
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 5
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.3% · 2
Popularity
Janece: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Janece from the 1930s through to the 2000s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 118 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1990s peak, Janece remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Janece 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 Janece during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Janece
The name Janece is a variant of the French name Jeanne, which is derived from the Hebrew name Yohanan, meaning "Yahweh is gracious." The name Jeanne first gained popularity in France during the Middle Ages, and its variant Janece likely emerged during this time as well.
Janece is a feminine name, and its origins can be traced back to the biblical figure John the Baptist. In the New Testament, John the Baptist was a Jewish preacher who baptized Jesus Christ in the River Jordan. He is considered an important figure in both Christianity and Islam.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Janece can be found in the 14th century, when a woman named Janece de Montfort lived in France. She was a noblewoman and the wife of John de Montfort, a prominent military leader during the Hundred Years' War.
Another notable figure in history with the name Janece was Janece de Valois, who lived in the 15th century. She was a French princess and the daughter of King Charles VII of France. She was known for her beauty and her support of the arts and literature.
In the 16th century, there was a woman named Janece de Navarre who was a prominent figure in the French court. She was a writer and a patron of the arts, and she was known for her intelligence and her wit.
In the 17th century, there was a woman named Janece d'Aubigny who was a French playwright and novelist. She was known for her bold and unconventional writing style, and she was one of the first women to gain recognition as a writer in France.
Finally, in the 18th century, there was a woman named Janece de La Fayette who was a French aristocrat and a supporter of the American Revolution. She was known for her courage and her dedication to the cause of liberty, and she played an important role in helping the American colonists gain their independence from Britain.
People
Janece + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Janece 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
Janece: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Janece?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 504 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Janece 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 680,068 US residents.
Is Janece a common name?
We classify Janece as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 643 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Janece most popular?
The single biggest year for Janece was 1960, when 19 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Janece is about 50 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Janece in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 577 people with the name Janece, or 0.19 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #18,616 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 Janece 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 Janece?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Janece appears almost entirely female. Of the 580 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 Janece?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Janece is White at 61.5%. The next largest groups are Black (26.7%) and Hispanic (6.9%). 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 Janece most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Janece in the 2020 Census, accounting for 61.5% (355 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 Janece in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Janece a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Janece 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 Janece still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Janece 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 Janece 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 Janece?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.