Janaki
Janaki was given to 8 girls in 2025, #11,324 among girls’ names; 197 Americans have been recorded with it since 1978 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Janaki by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Janaki mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Janaki is “a female given name from Sanskrit.”
Borrowed from Sanskrit जानकी (jānakī), from Sanskrit जनक (janaka).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Janaki?
#11,324 among girls’ names, 2025
Janaki rose from #17,566 in 2015 to #11,324 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 2.8 to 5.0 per million.
9 babies in 1981, the peak
Janaki peaked in 1981, when 9 girls were given it, #7,010 among girls’ names. The 8 births of 2025 are 89% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 8 | #11,324 | 5.0 |
| 2024 | 7 | #12,699 | 4.3 |
| 2023 | 7 | #12,691 | 4.4 |
| 2022 | 6 | #14,310 | 3.7 |
| 2020 | 7 | #12,701 | 4.3 |
| 2017 | 7 | #13,285 | 4.1 |
| 2016 | 8 | #12,216 | 4.5 |
| 2015 | 5 | #17,566 | 2.8 |
| 2014 | 5 | #17,629 | 2.8 |
| 2013 | 7 | #13,761 | 4.0 |
Every recorded year (30)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 6 | #15,614 | 3.4 |
| 2010 | 7 | #14,087 | 3.9 |
| 2008 | 6 | #16,235 | 3.2 |
| 2007 | 7 | #14,523 | 3.6 |
| 2004 | 5 | #17,196 | 2.7 |
| 2003 | 9 | #10,775 | 4.9 |
| 2002 | 5 | #16,519 | 2.8 |
| 2001 | 9 | #10,434 | 5.0 |
| 1999 | 6 | #13,337 | 3.4 |
| 1997 | 6 | #12,706 | 3.4 |
| 1995 | 5 | #14,310 | 2.8 |
| 1993 | 6 | #12,401 | 3.3 |
| 1992 | 6 | #12,354 | 3.3 |
| 1991 | 6 | #12,081 | 3.2 |
| 1989 | 7 | #10,121 | 3.8 |
| 1988 | 7 | #9,645 | 3.9 |
| 1986 | 6 | #10,013 | 3.5 |
| 1981 | 9 | #7,010 | 5.4 |
| 1980 | 7 | #8,490 | 4.2 |
| 1978 | 5 | #10,358 | 3.3 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Janaki a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Janaki has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 30 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Janaki: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Janaki, and how old are they?
An estimated 194 Americans named Janaki and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 22 years old and half are between 10 and 34. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 842 people named Janaki (802 women and girls, 40 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 162 born in the U.S. The Census count is 5.2 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names spelled alike
Of these 5 names spelled alike, given to 1,680 babies since 1880, Janaki is the fourth most given (12% of them). In 2025 it was given to 8 of their 20 babies (40%), the most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Janaki
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Janaki and names like it
- Compare Janaki and JanikaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sJanaki peaked in 1981.
- Sanskrit namesWiktionary’s origin for Janaki: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1981The year the most babies were named Janaki.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Janaki alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with JMost given first.