Jansen
A diminutive of the Dutch surname Jensen, itself derived from Johannes.
Name Census estimates that about 2,249 living Americans carry the first name Jansen. It is a predominantly male name (90.7% of registrations). The average person named Jansen today is around 25 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jansen births was 1994 (95 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jansen. 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 Jansen with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.2K
~ 1 in 152,403 Americans
Peak year
1994
95 babies that year
Average age
25
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,842
Tracked since 1958
Census
Jansen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,142 people with the first name Jansen, which placed it at #7,196 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
#7,196
National first-name rank
People counted
2.1K
2,142 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
69.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jansen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jansen is White at 69.4%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (11.4%) and Black (7.8%). 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 Jansen 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 Jansen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White69.4% · 1,487
- Asian and Pacific Islander11.4% · 244
- Black or African American7.8% · 168
- Hispanic or Latino5.6% · 120
- Two or more races5.2% · 111
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 12
Gender
Gender distribution for Jansen
Jansen leans heavily male at 90.7% of total registrations, but 214 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Jansen as a male name
- Ranked #2,842 in 2024
- 45 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1994 (88 births)
Jansen as a female name
- Ranked #17,579 in 2015
- 5 female births in 2015
- Peak: 1997 (18 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jansen leans strongly male. 1,876 people counted with this name were male (87.1%), compared with 278 female bearers (12.9%).
Popularity
Jansen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jansen from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 615 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1990s peak, Jansen remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jansen 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 Jansen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jansens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 14 states and territories. Texas, Louisiana, Kentucky recorded the most babies named Jansen, while Florida, Indiana, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 24 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jansen
The given name Jansen has its origins in the Dutch language, where it emerged as a patronymic surname derived from the personal name Jan, itself a Dutch form of the Latin name Johannes and the Hebrew name Yohanan, meaning "Yahweh is gracious." The name Jansen gained popularity in the Low Countries, particularly in the Netherlands and neighboring regions, during the Middle Ages and Renaissance periods.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Jansen can be traced back to the 13th century, when it appeared in various Dutch historical records and documents. As a given name, Jansen was likely adopted by individuals whose fathers or ancestors bore the surname Jansen, reflecting the naming conventions of the time.
Historically, the name Jansen has been associated with notable figures in various fields, including the arts, sciences, and literature. One prominent bearer of the name was Cornelis Jansen (1585-1638), a Dutch Catholic theologian and the author of the influential work "Augustinus," which laid the foundations for the Jansenist movement within the Catholic Church.
Another well-known individual with the name Jansen was Zacharias Janssen (c. 1585-c. 1632), a Dutch spectacle-maker who is credited with contributing to the development of the compound microscope and the telescope in the early 17th century, paving the way for significant advancements in scientific observation and exploration.
In the realm of art, the Dutch Golden Age painter Hieronymus Janssens (c. 1620-1689) gained recognition for his portraiture and historical paintings, which captured the opulence and grandeur of the Dutch aristocracy and upper classes during that period.
Moving forward in time, the 19th century witnessed the birth of Johannes Diderik van der Waals (1837-1923), a Dutch theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate who made pioneering contributions to the study of thermodynamics and the behavior of gases and liquids, leading to the formulation of the renowned van der Waals equation.
Another notable figure bearing the name Jansen was the Dutch writer and essayist Hendrik Marsman (1899-1940), who was part of the influential literary movement known as the "Nieuwe Zakelijkheid" (New Objectivity) and whose works explored themes of modernity, urban life, and the human condition.
While the name Jansen has Dutch roots, it has since been adopted and used across various cultures and regions, reflecting the widespread influence and migration patterns of Dutch settlers and communities throughout history.
People
Jansen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jansen 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
Jansen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jansen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,249 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jansen 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 152,403 US residents.
Is Jansen a common name?
We classify Jansen as "Rare". It ranks above 94.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,304 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jansen most popular?
The single biggest year for Jansen was 1994, when 95 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jansen is about 25 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jansen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,142 people with the name Jansen, or 0.71 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,196 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 Jansen 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 Jansen?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jansen leans strongly male. 1,876 people counted with this name were male (87.1%), compared with 278 female bearers (12.9%). 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 Jansen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jansen is White at 69.4%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (11.4%) and Black (7.8%). 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 Jansen most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jansen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 69.4% (1,487 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 Jansen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jansen a male name?
Yes, 90.7% of people registered as Jansen in the SSA data are male. 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 Jansen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jansen 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 Jansen 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 are called Jansen?
You can see how many Americans are named Jansen on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.