Janeth
A feminine form of the Hebrew name "Jane" or "Janet", meaning "God is gracious".
Name Census estimates that about 4,226 living Americans carry the first name Janeth. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Janeth today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Janeth births was 2003 (175 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Janeth. 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
4.2K
~ 1 in 81,106 Americans
Peak year
2003
175 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,697
Tracked since 1915
Census
Janeth in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 8,751 people with the first name Janeth, which placed it at #2,685 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
#2,685
National first-name rank
People counted
8.8K
8,751 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
88.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Janeth
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Janeth is Hispanic at 88.4%. The next largest groups are White (5.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.5%). 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 Janeth 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 Janeth at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino88.4% · 7,732
- White5.9% · 517
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.5% · 309
- Black or African American1.9% · 165
- Two or more races0.3% · 22
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 6
Popularity
Janeth: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Janeth from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 1,513 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Janeth 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 Janeth during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Janeths live
The SSA's state-level files cover 13 states and territories. California, Texas, Arizona recorded the most babies named Janeth, while Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 215 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Janeth
The name Janeth originated from the Hebrew language and culture. It is a variant spelling of the biblical name Janeth, which is derived from the Hebrew word "Yohanan" meaning "Yahweh is gracious" or "God is merciful." The name dates back to ancient times and can be traced to the Old Testament of the Bible.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Janeth is found in the Book of Judges, where it is mentioned as the name of a judge and military leader who helped deliver the Israelites from oppression. Another historical reference is Janeth the Baptist, a Jewish preacher who baptized Jesus Christ in the River Jordan, as described in the New Testament.
In the Middle Ages, the name Janeth was relatively uncommon but was used by several notable figures. One such person was Janeth of Arc (1412-1431), the French peasant girl who led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War. She was later canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church.
During the Renaissance period, the name gained popularity among European nobility and aristocracy. A famous bearer of the name was Janeth of Valois (1556-1644), a French princess and the daughter of King Henry II of France and Catherine de' Medici. She was known for her patronage of the arts and her influential role in the French court.
In the 17th century, the name Janeth was particularly popular in England and Scotland. One notable figure was Janeth Donne (1572-1631), an English poet and cleric who is considered one of the preeminent metaphysical poets of his time.
Another significant historical figure with the name Janeth was Janeth Austen (1775-1817), the renowned English novelist whose works, such as "Pride and Prejudice" and "Sense and Sensibility," have become literary classics and have had a lasting impact on English literature.
People
Janeth + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Janeth 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
Janeth: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Janeth?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,226 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Janeth 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 81,106 US residents.
Is Janeth a common name?
We classify Janeth as "Rare". It ranks above 96.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,760 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Janeth most popular?
The single biggest year for Janeth was 2003, when 175 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Janeth is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Janeth in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 8,751 people with the name Janeth, or 2.90 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,685 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 Janeth 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 Janeth?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Janeth appears almost entirely female. Of the 8,755 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Janeth?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Janeth is Hispanic at 88.4%. The next largest groups are White (5.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.5%). 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 Janeth most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Janeth in the 2020 Census, accounting for 88.4% (7,732 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 Janeth in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Janeth a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Janeth 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 Janeth still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Janeth 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 Janeth 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 have the name Janeth?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.