Janus — unisex name

What the Data Says About Janus

The Social Security Administration has registered 127 babies named Janus between 1936 and 1971, spanning 36 consecutive years of U.S. birth records. As a girl's name, Janus currently falls outside the top 1,000 girls' names for 1971. The name reached its historical peak in 1956, when 16 babies received it in a single year. Janus is classified as unisex in SSA records: the opposite-sex variant accounts for 41 additional births since 1922.

Decade-level aggregation shows that Janus performed strongest in the 1950s, accumulating 56 births during that ten-year window. Across the 5 decades of recorded activity, Janus shows a clear decline from its mid-century high.

No etymological entry is currently available for Janus in our reference dataset. These figures derive from SSA's annual national and state-level name files, which include any name appearing at least five times in a given year or state-year; names below that threshold are suppressed for privacy and therefore excluded from the totals shown here. The 127 total represents a lower bound — actual usage may be higher in years or states where the count fell below the disclosure floor. This page is provided for informational and research purposes only and does not constitute personal, legal, or naming advice.