Janell
Janell was given to 18 girls in 2025, #6,417 among girls’ names; 15,756 Americans have been recorded with it since 1914 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 13,500 Americans named Janell and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (86% of everyone recorded); the median is 48 years old and half are between 36 and 62.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Janell by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Janell?
#6,417 among girls’ names, 2025
Janell fell from #3,555 in 2015 to #6,417 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 24.6 to 11.2 per million.
421 babies in 1979, the peak
Janell peaked in 1979, when 421 babies were given it (416 girls, #490 among girls’ names). The 18 births of 2025 are 4% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 18 | #6,417 | 0.01 |
| 2024 | 36 | #4,070 | 0.02 |
| 2023 | 20 | #6,045 | 0.01 |
| 2022 | 23 | #5,533 | 0.01 |
| 2021 | 27 | #4,892 | 0.02 |
| 2020 | 38 | #3,805 | 0.02 |
| 2019 | 40 | #3,746 | 0.02 |
| 2018 | 32 | #4,400 | 0.02 |
| 2017 | 37 | #4,026 | 0.02 |
| 2016 | 42 | #3,675 | 0.02 |
Every recorded year (111)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 44 | #3,555 | 0.02 |
| 2014 | 54 | #3,092 | 0.03 |
| 2013 | 59 | #2,879 | 0.03 |
| 2012 | 77 | #2,411 | 0.04 |
| 2011 | 88 | #2,166 | 0.05 |
| 2010 | 96 | #2,064 | 0.05 |
| 2009 | 131 | #1,700 | 0.07 |
| 2008 | 123 | #1,788 | 0.07 |
| 2007 | 119 | #1,795 | 0.06 |
| 2006 | 117 | #1,778 | 0.06 |
| 2005 | 85 | #2,170 | 0.05 |
| 2004 | 120 | #1,621 | 0.07 |
| 2003 | 94 | #1,931 | 0.05 |
| 2002 | 111 | #1,657 | 0.06 |
| 2001 | 102 | #1,753 | 0.06 |
| 2000 | 126 | #1,460 | 0.07 |
| 1999 | 123 | #1,424 | 0.07 |
| 1998 | 149 | #1,224 | 0.08 |
| 1997 | 147 | #1,220 | 0.08 |
| 1996 | 145 | #1,217 | 0.08 |
| 1995 | 147 | #1,170 | 0.08 |
| 1994 | 191 | #972 | 0.11 |
| 1993 | 185 | #999 | 0.10 |
| 1992 | 216 | #902 | 0.12 |
| 1991 | 202 | #942 | 0.11 |
| 1990 | 227 | #864 | 0.12 |
| 1989 | 216 | #858 | 0.12 |
| 1988 | 241 | #780 | 0.14 |
| 1987 | 245 | #738 | 0.14 |
| 1986 | 242 | #736 | 0.14 |
| 1985 | 260 | #686 | 0.15 |
| 1984 | 288 | #619 | 0.17 |
| 1983 | 286 | #611 | 0.17 |
| 1982 | 308 | #590 | 0.18 |
| 1981 | 330 | #563 | 0.20 |
| 1980 | 340 | #549 | 0.20 |
| 1979 | 416 | #490 | 0.26 |
| 1978 | 334 | #537 | 0.22 |
| 1977 | 267 | #629 | 0.17 |
| 1976 | 293 | #567 | 0.20 |
| 1975 | 298 | #563 | 0.20 |
| 1974 | 209 | #701 | 0.14 |
| 1973 | 258 | #605 | 0.18 |
| 1972 | 223 | #672 | 0.15 |
| 1971 | 280 | #608 | 0.17 |
| 1970 | 274 | #621 | 0.16 |
| 1969 | 258 | #618 | 0.15 |
| 1968 | 261 | #595 | 0.16 |
| 1967 | 236 | #618 | 0.14 |
| 1966 | 233 | #624 | 0.14 |
| 1965 | 286 | #563 | 0.16 |
| 1964 | 259 | #635 | 0.14 |
| 1963 | 213 | #692 | 0.11 |
| 1962 | 282 | #592 | 0.14 |
| 1961 | 275 | #612 | 0.14 |
| 1960 | 234 | #665 | 0.12 |
| 1959 | 218 | #679 | 0.11 |
| 1958 | 216 | #673 | 0.11 |
| 1957 | 239 | #629 | 0.12 |
| 1956 | 215 | #653 | 0.11 |
| 1955 | 199 | #662 | 0.10 |
| 1954 | 263 | #547 | 0.14 |
| 1953 | 200 | #628 | 0.11 |
| 1952 | 179 | #661 | 0.10 |
| 1951 | 147 | #720 | 0.08 |
| 1950 | 158 | #676 | 0.09 |
| 1949 | 168 | #641 | 0.10 |
| 1948 | 97 | #882 | 0.06 |
| 1947 | 140 | #718 | 0.08 |
| 1946 | 112 | #777 | 0.07 |
| 1945 | 80 | #846 | 0.06 |
| 1944 | 93 | #795 | 0.07 |
| 1943 | 103 | #765 | 0.07 |
| 1942 | 78 | #877 | 0.06 |
| 1941 | 77 | #825 | 0.06 |
| 1940 | 83 | #775 | 0.07 |
| 1939 | 79 | #770 | 0.07 |
| 1938 | 79 | #796 | 0.07 |
| 1937 | 74 | #799 | 0.07 |
| 1936 | 88 | #714 | 0.08 |
| 1935 | 70 | #817 | 0.07 |
| 1934 | 59 | #890 | 0.06 |
| 1933 | 48 | #1,003 | 0.05 |
| 1932 | 48 | #1,022 | 0.04 |
| 1931 | 26 | #1,470 | 0.02 |
| 1930 | 30 | #1,417 | 0.03 |
| 1929 | 35 | #1,267 | 0.03 |
| 1928 | 27 | #1,561 | 0.02 |
| 1927 | 48 | #1,104 | 0.04 |
| 1926 | 92 | #752 | 0.08 |
| 1925 | 23 | #1,818 | 0.02 |
| 1924 | 16 | #2,360 | 0.01 |
| 1923 | 12 | #2,814 | 0.01 |
| 1922 | 9 | #3,511 | 0.01 |
| 1921 | 16 | #2,330 | 0.01 |
| 1920 | 18 | #2,118 | 0.02 |
| 1919 | 8 | #3,621 | 0.01 |
| 1918 | 9 | #3,375 | 0.01 |
| 1917 | 6 | #4,325 | 0.01 |
| 1916 | 7 | #3,714 | 0.01 |
| 1914 | 5 | #3,888 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Janell a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Janell has been given almost only to girls: 23 boys in 111 years of records.
Girls and boys named Janell: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Janell, and how old are they?
13,500 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 86% of the 15,756 Americans ever recorded as Janell. The median Janell alive today is 48 years old; half are between 36 and 62.
The 2020 Census counted 12,755 people named Janell (12,689 women and girls, 66 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 13,931 born in the U.S. The Census count is 8% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 412 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 3,020 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 4,160 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 3,630 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,790 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 467 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
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).
Where are babies named Janell born?
The states with the most babies named Janell are California, Texas and New York, with 33% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 1,942 | #3,294 | 1.2× |
| Texas | 1,250 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| New York | 588 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Louisiana | 565 | not ranked | 1.8× |
| Illinois | 541 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Michigan | 538 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Pennsylvania | 504 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Ohio | 487 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Minnesota | 481 | not ranked | 1.5× |
| Washington | 390 | not ranked | 1.4× |
Where Janell is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Janell is most over-represented in Kansas: since 1914 it was given 2.0 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Janell with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 29,969 babies since 1880, Janell is the most given (53% of them). In 2025 it was given to 18 of their 26 babies (69%), again the most given.
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 Janell
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 Janell and names like it
- Compare Janell and JanelBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1970sJanell peaked in 1979.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Janell since 1910.
- The top names of 1979The year the most babies were named Janell.
- The names of Generation XMost people named Janell alive today were born 1965-1980.
- Names starting with JMost given first.