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Janay

#7,275 in 2025Girls' name

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Janay has been given to 5,832 babies in the U.S. since 1952. In 2025 it ranked #7,275 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1987, with 596 recorded.

Babies named Janay, 2025

1 in 221,000

Janay over time, 1880–2025

Girls
020040060018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Janay: meaning, origin, and history

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Janay means

Janay is a given name.

The naming story behind Janay

Wikidata records Janay as a female given name. The entity identifier is Q70100353, and the classification was checked on 2026-10-20. The spelling matches a source label or alias exactly, without removing accents or linking it to a name merely because the letters look similar.

A database classification is different from an etymological explanation, so those questions remain open in the short meaning.

A modern root explanation needs an additional naming or linguistic reference.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 5,832 girls were recorded with the name Janay between 1952 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 596 in 1987; its best national rank was #388 in 1987.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #8,622 in 2020 to #7,275 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #3,071 in 2015 to #7,275 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

How common is Janay?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 221,000
15 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 107,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#7,275
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
153,194 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Janay sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 153,194 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Janay. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Janays were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Janay was born before 1993 — so the typical Janay is around 32 today.

Median birth year
1993
About 32 years old
Biggest decade
1990s
36.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
28.2%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
5,832
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1990s — 36.0% of all recorded uses (2,101).

Is Janay rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
+107
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+1,347
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
−4,204
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.27×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
2.5%
Peak was 1987 (596)
Years since peak
38
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
24.9% average annual change
Best rank ever
#388
1987

Spellings of Janay

Janay is not the most common spelling — Nancy is, with 31.2% against Janay's 0.18%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Janay is used

Across 1910–2025, Janay was most concentrated in District of Columbia — about 1 in 6,250 girls, against 1 in 35,978 across all states with data. It was least common in Oklahoma (1 in —).

016 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1District of Columbia1 in 6,250
  2. 2Florida1 in 11,111
  3. 3Maryland1 in 14,286
  4. 4California1 in 25,000
  5. 5Georgia1 in 25,000
  6. 6Louisiana1 in 25,000
  7. 7Michigan1 in 25,000
  8. 8New York1 in 25,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Janay has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Janay around the world

Where Janay ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2010
    #5,707
    in 2010
  • Canada
    1991–2005
    #2,024
    in 2005
  • South Australia
    1982–2004
    #700
    in 2004

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Janay

People whose public names include Janay, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Janay in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Janay. Linked forms have their own page here.

Janaye

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Janay by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#7,275
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 1,347
Best rank ever
#388
1987
Peak year
1987
596 that year
First recorded
1952
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
5,832
Count in 2025
15

Names similar to Janay

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

JaneyJaneeJanaiJaniaJanelJanyaJanethJaniahJannaJaneaJanaeJanayaJanettJaniyaJaninaJannahJannieJanylaJanellJanelyJaniseJanitaJaniJaniece

Names with a curve like Janay

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Janay, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

JessikaMairaKristianBreannKrystaJessiChanelleKassieMaiBritanyShanelleKortney

Sibling names for Janay

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Janay

Top names of 1987, Janay's peak yearThe 1980s in fullOther names that peaked in 1987Girls' names starting with J