Jeanetta
A feminine diminutive form of the French name Jeanne meaning "God's gracious gift".
Name Census estimates that about 2,990 living Americans carry the first name Jeanetta. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Jeanetta today is around 58 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jeanetta births was 1961 (104 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jeanetta. 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
3.0K
~ 1 in 114,634 Americans
Peak year
1961
104 babies that year
Average age
58
years old
2024 SSA rank
#14,179
Tracked since 1882
Census
Jeanetta in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,026 people with the first name Jeanetta, which placed it at #5,601 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
#5,601
National first-name rank
People counted
3.0K
3,026 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
46.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jeanetta
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jeanetta is White at 46.4%. The next largest groups are Black (45.2%) and Two or More Races (3.6%). 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 Jeanetta 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 Jeanetta at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White46.4% · 1,405
- Black or African American45.2% · 1,368
- Two or more races3.6% · 109
- Hispanic or Latino2.6% · 78
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.8% · 54
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 12
Popularity
Jeanetta: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jeanetta from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 844 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
Jeanetta 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 Jeanetta during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jeanettas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 20 states and territories. Texas, Kentucky, Illinois recorded the most babies named Jeanetta, while Florida, Kansas, Pennsylvania recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 89 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jeanetta
The name Jeanetta has its origins in the French language and culture, derived from the more common name Jeanne. It is believed to have emerged in the Middle Ages, around the 12th or 13th century.
Jeanne, and by extension Jeanetta, is a French form of the Hebrew name Yohanan or Yohanna, meaning "God is gracious." This Hebrew name was later adopted into Greek as Ioannes, and then into Latin as Johannes, which eventually led to the French Jean and its feminine form Jeanne.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Jeanetta can be found in the 14th century French epic poem "Le Roman de la Rose," which mentions a character named Jeanette. This suggests that the name was already in use by that time.
In the 16th century, a notable figure named Jeanetta Arnolfini was immortalized in the famous Renaissance painting "The Arnolfini Portrait" by Jan van Eyck. The painting, completed in 1434, depicts the Italian merchant Giovanni Arnolfini and his wife, whose first name was Jeanetta.
Another prominent figure with the name Jeanetta was Jeanetta Pennington (1619-1690), an English Quaker minister and writer. She was an influential figure in the early Quaker movement and authored several religious works.
In the 18th century, Jeanetta Wilkinson (1735-1819) was an American pioneer and founder of the village of Toronto, Ohio. She is recognized as one of the first non-Native American settlers in the Ohio Country.
A more recent historical figure with the name Jeanetta was Jeanetta Arnette (1876-1959), an American educator and civil rights activist. She was a prominent figure in the African American community of St. Louis, Missouri, and worked tirelessly to improve educational opportunities for Black students.
While not as common as its parent name Jeanne, Jeanetta has been used throughout history, appearing in various literary works, historical records, and as the given name of notable individuals across different cultures and time periods.
People
Jeanetta + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jeanetta 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
Jeanetta: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jeanetta?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,990 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jeanetta 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 114,634 US residents.
Is Jeanetta a common name?
We classify Jeanetta as "Rare". It ranks above 95.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,149 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jeanetta most popular?
The single biggest year for Jeanetta was 1961, when 104 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jeanetta is about 58 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jeanetta in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,026 people with the name Jeanetta, or 1.00 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,601 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 Jeanetta 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 Jeanetta?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jeanetta appears almost entirely female. Of the 3,024 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 Jeanetta?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jeanetta is White at 46.4%. The next largest groups are Black (45.2%) and Two or More Races (3.6%). 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 Jeanetta most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jeanetta in the 2020 Census, accounting for 46.4% (1,405 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 Jeanetta in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jeanetta a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Jeanetta 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 Jeanetta still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jeanetta 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 Jeanetta 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 common is the name Jeanetta?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.