Janice
A feminine name of English origin meaning "God is gracious".
Name Census estimates that about 234,782 living Americans carry the first name Janice. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Janice today is around 69 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Janice births was 1951 (15,982 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Janice. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Janice with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Janice is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 1,157 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • The typical person named Janice is about 69 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Janices were born before 1967.
- • Compared to the 1950s, recent registration numbers for Janice have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
235K
~ 1 in 1,460 Americans
Peak year
1951
15,982 babies that year
Average age
69
years old
1988 SSA rank
#2,250
Tracked since 1894
Census
Janice in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 302,295 people with the first name Janice, which placed it at #169 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
#169
National first-name rank
People counted
302K
302,295 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
100.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
79.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Janice
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Janice is White at 79.9%. The next largest groups are Black (12.4%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (2.7%). 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 Janice 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 Janice at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White79.9% · 241,429
- Black or African American12.4% · 37,442
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.7% · 8,226
- Hispanic or Latino2.6% · 7,933
- Two or more races1.8% · 5,392
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 1,873
Gender
Gender distribution for Janice
Out of the 407,532 babies given the name Janice since 1880, 99.7% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Janice as a male name
- Ranked #7,775 in 1988
- 5 male births in 1988
- Peak: 1940 (47 births)
Janice as a female name
- Ranked #2,250 in 2024
- 83 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1951 (15,959 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Janice appears almost entirely female. Of the 302,296 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Janice: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Janice from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 133,880 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Janice 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 Janice during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Janices live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, New York, Illinois recorded the most babies named Janice, while Alaska, Nevada, Delaware recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 7,900 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Janice
The name Janice originated from the ancient Roman name Janicia, which was derived from the name Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and transitions. Janus was often depicted with two faces, one looking to the past and the other to the future, symbolizing the transition between different states or times.
Janice first appeared in ancient Roman texts and records, but it wasn't until the Middle Ages that it began to gain popularity across Europe. The name was particularly common in Italy, France, and England during this period. In some cases, the spelling was slightly altered to Janyce or Janise.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Janice can be found in the 12th-century French epic poem "The Song of Roland," where a character named Jannice is mentioned. In the 13th century, there was a notable figure named Janice of Navarre, who was a Spanish noblewoman and the wife of King Philip III of France.
During the Renaissance period, the name Janice became more widely used, particularly among the upper classes. One famous bearer of the name was Janice Wynton (1520-1578), an English courtier and lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth I.
In the 17th century, Janice Antoinette de Locqueville (1615-1683), a French writer and intellectual, gained recognition for her literary works and contributions to the salons of Paris. Another notable figure was Janice Halliday (1670-1724), an English botanist and one of the first women to be elected as a member of the Royal Society.
In the 19th century, Janice Meredith (1824-1899) was an American author best known for her historical novel of the same name, which depicted events during the American Revolutionary War. Janice Pollock (1858-1932), an Australian artist and suffragette, was also a prominent figure in the women's rights movement.
These are just a few examples of the many notable individuals throughout history who have borne the name Janice, which has its roots in ancient Roman mythology and has been a part of various cultures and societies over the centuries.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Janice
People
Janice + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Janice 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
Janice: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Janice?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 234,782 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Janice 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 1,460 US residents.
Is Janice a common name?
We classify Janice as "Common". It ranks above 99.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 407,532 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Janice most popular?
The single biggest year for Janice was 1951, when 15,982 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Janice is about 69 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Janice in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 302,295 people with the name Janice, or 100.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #169 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 Janice 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 Janice?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Janice appears almost entirely female. Of the 302,296 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 Janice?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Janice is White at 79.9%. The next largest groups are Black (12.4%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (2.7%). 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 Janice most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Janice in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.9% (241,429 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 Janice in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Janice a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Janice 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 Janice still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Janice 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 Janice 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 Americans are named Janice?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.