ninan.org

Jane

Girls' name · Mid-century perennial

Living in the US
~215,300 survival-weighted estimate
2025 rank
#221 among girls
Births in 2025
1,380 381,009 since 1880
Typical age
69 years, median

Jane popularity over time

Jane rank by birth year, 1880–2025Jane ranked #98 in 1880 and #221 in 2025. Its best rank in the period was #35, in 1946.#100#221best #35 in 194618901920195019802010
Rank among US baby names by birth year, 1880–2025. Lower is more popular; the scale is logarithmic so the top of the chart is not compressed.

The high point was 1947: 9,961 births recorded as Jane. The name is already in use in 1880, where the data begins. It has held a top-100 place in 60 separate years.

As of 2025 the name sits at #221, with 1,380 births that year. Over ten years the count has risen 24%. Year on year the rank improved by 48.

Babies named Jane per yearPeaks at 9,961 births in 1947.9,961 in 1947018901920195019802010
Recorded US births by year. The peak is labelled; the axis starts at zero.

How many people are named Jane?

Roughly 215,300 Janes are alive in the US right now. That is out of 381,009 recorded births since 1880.

This is a survival-weighted estimate, not a headcount: every recorded birth year is multiplied by the chance someone born that year is still alive, using the SSA period life table. How the estimate works.

How old is the average Jane?

The typical living Jane is 69 years old. The 1950s produced the largest surviving cohort. By the site’s era rules that makes Jane a mid-century perennial name.

Your Jane

Ages of living people named JaneHalf of living Janes are older than 69 and half younger.median 69020406080100
Estimated living bearers by age today. Each bar is a birth year, weighted by the chance someone born then is still alive.

Where Jane is most common

The name is concentrated in Utah, at 5.9× the national rate. District of Columbia, Idaho and Oregon follow.

Where Jane is used more than average5 states use the name Jane more than the national average.Alaska: not over-representedAKMaine: not over-representedMEVermont: not over-representedVTNew Hampshire: not over-representedNHWashington: not over-representedWAIdaho: 3.3× the national rateIDMontana: 2.0× the national rateMTNorth Dakota: not over-representedNDMinnesota: not over-representedMNIllinois: not over-representedILWisconsin: not over-representedWIMichigan: not over-representedMINew York: not over-representedNYOregon: 2.1× the national rateORNevada: not over-representedNVWyoming: not over-representedWYSouth Dakota: not over-representedSDIowa: not over-representedIAIndiana: not over-representedINOhio: not over-representedOHPennsylvania: not over-representedPANew Jersey: not over-representedNJConnecticut: not over-representedCTRhode Island: not over-representedRICalifornia: not over-representedCAUtah: 5.9× the national rateUTColorado: not over-representedCONebraska: not over-representedNEMissouri: not over-representedMOKentucky: not over-representedKYWest Virginia: not over-representedWVVirginia: not over-representedVAMaryland: not over-representedMDDelaware: not over-representedDEMassachusetts: not over-representedMAArizona: not over-representedAZNew Mexico: not over-representedNMKansas: not over-representedKSArkansas: not over-representedARTennessee: not over-representedTNNorth Carolina: not over-representedNCSouth Carolina: not over-representedSCDistrict of Columbia: 4.2× the national rateDCOklahoma: not over-representedOKLouisiana: not over-representedLAMississippi: not over-representedMSAlabama: not over-representedALGeorgia: not over-representedGAHawaii: not over-representedHITexas: not over-representedTXFlorida: not over-representedFL
Same as national3× or more
Location quotient, 2016–2025. Shaded states use the name more than the country does, relative to their own births. Exact figures are in the table below.
States where Jane is over-represented, 2016–2025. The location quotient compares the state's share of the name with the national share.
StateBirthsvs national rate
Utah 725 5.9×
District of Columbia 89 4.2×
Idaho 165 3.3×
Oregon 214 2.1×
Montana 42 2.0×

Jane in England and Wales

ONS recorded 30 births named Jane in 2025, ranking it #1,110. That is 67% higher than five years earlier.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Counts below three are suppressed by ONS.

Where the name Jane comes from

Variant of Jeanne, from French Jeanne, from Middle French Jehanne, from Medieval Latin Johanna, variant of Latin Ioanna under influence from Latin Iōhannēs, from Koine Greek Ἰωάννα, from Hebrew יוֹחָנָה, the feminized form of יְהוֹחָנָן which produced John and its many doublets. As a placeholder name, cf. similar use of John and Jack and earlier use of Joan in the same role.

Etymology summarised from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0. Wiktionary entry.

Notable people named Jane

Ordered by how many Wikipedia language editions have an article about them — a measure of reach, not of importance.
NameKnown forYearsEditions
Jane Austen author, novelist, writer 1775–1817 201
Jane Goodall English primatologist and anthropologist 1934–2025 120
Jane Fonda American actress and activist 1937 120
Jane Addams American feminist social activist, reformer, social worker, sociologist, philosopher, and writer 1860–1935 99
Jane Wyman American actress 1917–2007 69
Jane Birkin British-French actress and singer 1946–2023 64
Jane Seymour third wife of Henry VIII of England 1508–1537 62
Jane Lynch American actress 1960 59
Photo credits (8)

The sharpest rise. Births under this name jumped from 288 in 1887 to 446 in 1888 — 1.5 times over in a single year.

Birth records contain the rise and nothing about its cause. This site does not supply one.

People and dates from Wikidata (CC0), limited to those with an English Wikipedia article who are known by this name as their first name.

Names similar to Jane

Matched by sound and spelling inside this dataset, then ordered by total recorded births. This is not a claim about shared etymology.

Same feel, less common

The same matches, limited to names given at most half as often as Jane was in 2025.

Related pages

Get this data

Every number on this page is available as JSON: /api/name/jane.json. Free to use with attribution (CC BY 4.0).