ninan.org

Jean

Unisex name · Early 20th-century perennial

Living in the US
~207,500 survival-weighted estimate
2025 rank
#2,117 among girls
Births in 2025
264 483,475 since 1880
Typical age
72 years, median

Jean popularity over time

Jean rank by birth year, 1880–2025Jean ranked #201 in 1880 and #2,117 in 2025. Its best rank in the period was #12, in 1926.#100#1,000#2,117best #12 in 192618901920195019802010
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 1927: 12,775 births recorded as Jean. The name is already in use in 1880, where the data begins. Across the record, 59 years put Jean in the top 100.

The 2025 position is #2,117, on 264 births. Year on year the rank improved by 296.

Babies named Jean per yearPeaks at 12,775 births in 1927.12,775 in 1927018901920195019802010
Recorded US births by year. The peak is labelled; the axis starts at zero.

How many people are named Jean?

An estimated 207,500 living Americans are called Jean. That is out of 483,475 recorded births since 1880. The split is about 191,100 women and 16,400 men.

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 Jean?

Median age among living Jeans: 72. More of them were born in the 1950s than in any other decade. By the site’s era rules that makes Jean a early 20th-century perennial name.

Your Jean

Ages of living people named JeanHalf of living Jeans are older than 72 and half younger.median 72020406080100
Estimated living bearers by age today. Each bar is a birth year, weighted by the chance someone born then is still alive.

Where Jean is most common

The name is concentrated in Florida, at 2.5× the national rate. New Jersey and New York follow.

Where Jean is used more than average3 states use the name Jean more than the national average.Alaska: not over-representedAKMaine: not over-representedMEVermont: not over-representedVTNew Hampshire: not over-representedNHWashington: not over-representedWAIdaho: not over-representedIDMontana: not over-representedMTNorth Dakota: not over-representedNDMinnesota: not over-representedMNIllinois: not over-representedILWisconsin: not over-representedWIMichigan: not over-representedMINew York: 2.0× the national rateNYOregon: not over-representedORNevada: not over-representedNVWyoming: not over-representedWYSouth Dakota: not over-representedSDIowa: not over-representedIAIndiana: not over-representedINOhio: not over-representedOHPennsylvania: not over-representedPANew Jersey: 2.1× the national rateNJConnecticut: not over-representedCTRhode Island: not over-representedRICalifornia: not over-representedCAUtah: not over-representedUTColorado: 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: not over-representedDCOklahoma: not over-representedOKLouisiana: not over-representedLAMississippi: not over-representedMSAlabama: not over-representedALGeorgia: not over-representedGAHawaii: not over-representedHITexas: not over-representedTXFlorida: 2.5× the national rateFL
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 Jean is over-represented, 2016–2025. The location quotient compares the state's share of the name with the national share.
StateBirthsvs national rate
Florida 302 2.5×
New Jersey 107 2.1×
New York 227 2.0×

Is Jean a boy's or a girl's name?

95% girls5% boys
Share of all recorded US births under this name, 1880 to the latest year.

Jean is genuinely unisex: over the last decade the split is close to even. Across the whole record, 94.8% of births under the name were girls. The name has changed sides: it began mostly on one sex and ends mostly on the other.

Jean in England and Wales

ONS recorded 16 births named Jean in 2025, ranking it #2,605.

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

Where the name Jean comes from

Variant of Jeanne, from French Jeanne, from Old French Jehane, 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. Doublet of Ivana, Jana, Jane, Janice, Janis, Jeanne, Jen, Joan, Joanna, Joanne, Johanna, Juana, Shavonne, Sian, Siobhan, Shane, Shaun, Shauna, Sheena.

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

Notable people named Jean

Ordered by how many Wikipedia language editions have an article about them — a measure of reach, not of importance.
NameKnown forYearsEditions
Jean de La Fontaine French poet, fabulist and writer 1621–1695 145
Jean Cocteau French writer and film director 1889–1963 121
Jean Racine French dramatist —–1699 118
Jean Le Rond d'Alembert French mathematician, mechanician, physicist, philosopher and music theorist 1717–1783 114
Jean Piaget Swiss psychologist, biologist, logician, philosopher and academic 1896–1980 105
Jean Perrin French physicist 1870–1942 87
Jean Baudrillard French sociologist, philosopher and cultural theorist 1929–2007 85
Jean Gabin French actor and singer 1904–1976 84
Photo credits (8)

The sharpest rise. Births under this name jumped from 1,425 in 1911 to 2,146 in 1912 — 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 Jean

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

Related pages

Get this data

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