Janele
Janele was last recorded in 2008, when 5 babies were given it; 256 Americans have been recorded with it between 1956 and 2008 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Janele by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Janele?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #18,710, in 2008; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
14 babies in 1978, the peak
Janele peaked in 1978, when 14 girls were given it, #4,778 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 5 | #18,710 | 2.6 |
| 1997 | 7 | #11,312 | 4.0 |
| 1996 | 9 | #9,099 | 5.1 |
| 1995 | 6 | #12,381 | 3.4 |
| 1994 | 9 | #9,115 | 5.0 |
| 1993 | 10 | #8,292 | 5.5 |
| 1992 | 10 | #8,319 | 5.4 |
| 1991 | 8 | #9,673 | 4.3 |
| 1990 | 10 | #8,113 | 5.3 |
| 1989 | 7 | #10,127 | 3.8 |
Every recorded year (31)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | 13 | #6,021 | 7.3 |
| 1987 | 8 | #8,286 | 4.6 |
| 1986 | 7 | #8,902 | 4.1 |
| 1985 | 10 | #6,636 | 5.8 |
| 1984 | 6 | #9,580 | 3.6 |
| 1983 | 12 | #5,588 | 7.2 |
| 1982 | 10 | #6,543 | 5.9 |
| 1981 | 6 | #9,535 | 3.6 |
| 1980 | 9 | #7,001 | 5.4 |
| 1979 | 13 | #5,207 | 8.1 |
| 1978 | 14 | #4,778 | 9.1 |
| 1977 | 7 | #7,843 | 4.6 |
| 1976 | 7 | #7,597 | 4.8 |
| 1973 | 11 | #5,008 | 7.5 |
| 1972 | 7 | #6,824 | 4.6 |
| 1971 | 6 | #7,744 | 3.6 |
| 1969 | 5 | #7,905 | 3.0 |
| 1967 | 5 | #7,189 | 3.0 |
| 1965 | 7 | #5,493 | 4.0 |
| 1963 | 7 | #5,542 | 3.6 |
| 1956 | 5 | #6,323 | 2.5 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Janele a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Janele has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 31 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Janele: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Janele, and how old are they?
An estimated 244 Americans named Janele and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (95% of everyone recorded); the median is 43 years old and half are between 35 and 48. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 361 people named Janele (358 women and girls, 3 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 247 born in the U.S. The Census count is 46% above 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).
How common is the spelling Janele?
Janele is a less common spelling of Janelle: SSA has recorded 256 Janele and 56,967 Janelle since 1880.
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 68,280 babies since 1880, Janele is the eighth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 none of their 568 babies recorded by SSA was a Janele (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
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 Janele
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 Janele and names like it
- Compare Janele and JanelleBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1970sJanele peaked in 1978.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Janele since 1910.
- The top names of 1978The year the most babies were named Janele.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Janele alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with JMost given first.