Janet
Janet is outside the top 1,000 in 2024, with 74 births. Its best rank was 16th, in 1938.
- Rank in 2024
- —outside the top 1,000
- Births in 2024
- 740.00% of girls
- Peak year
- 195418,477 births
- Best rank
- #16in 1938
- Since 1880
- 558,224people given the name
The story in the numbers
556,709 girls have been named Janet in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1954, with 18,477 births — 0.95% of all girls recorded that year.
The name has all but left use: 74 births in 2024, against 18,477 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1952, and the 1950s alone account for 30%. It has spent 132 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 43 of them in the top 100.
It is overwhelmingly a girl’s name: 1,515 boys have also been given it, 0.27% of the total.
Rank among girls, year by year
By decade
| Decade | girls named Janet | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 461 | |
| 1890s | 898 | |
| 1900s | 1,541 | |
| 1910s | 10,713 | |
| 1920s | 23,972 | |
| 1930s | 76,038 | |
| 1940s | 130,754 | |
| 1950s | 167,519 | |
| 1960s | 89,315 | |
| 1970s | 24,453 | |
| 1980s | 13,521 | |
| 1990s | 9,660 | |
| 2000s | 5,501 | |
| 2010s | 1,905 | |
| 2020s | 458 |
In 1954, its biggest year
Janet was the 19th most given girl’s name that year. The top five girls’ names of 1954 were Mary, Linda, Deborah, Patricia and Susan. See all of 1954.
Names that rose and fell with Janet
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Patriciapeak 1951
- Deloisepeak 1953
- Nancypeak 1947
- Marileepeak 1947
- Rosannpeak 1952
- Jopeak 1954
- Gaypeak 1959
- Marciapeak 1951
Other spellings in the data
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.