Janek

Boys' name

Diminutive of Jan

Janek has been given to 29 babies in the U.S. since 2009. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 2022, with 7 recorded.

Babies named Janek, 2022

1 in 484,000

Janek over time, 1880–2025

Boys

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Janek: meaning, origin, and history

Diminutive of Jan

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Janek means

Janek is a diminutive of Jan.

Origin, language, and formation

Janek is used in Czech, Estonian, Old Czech and Polish.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Jan and Jaan.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Czech, Janek is pronounced [ˈjanɛk].

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 29 boys were recorded with the name Janek between 2009 and 2022. Its highest annual count was 7 in 2022; its best national rank was #10,246 in 2022.

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.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Janek?

Janek had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2022, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2022: 1 in 484,000; 7 of 3,385,755 births
Among boys only: 1 in 249,000; <0.01% of boys
Rank, 2022: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 335,262 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Janek sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2022 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 335,262 children born in 2022 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Janek. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Janeks were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Janek was born before 2015 — so the typical Janek is around 10 today.

Median birth year: 2015; About 10 years old
Biggest decade: 2010s; 55.2% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 100.0%; A modern name
Recorded since 1950: 29; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

2010s — 55.2% of all recorded uses (16).

Is Janek 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: —; Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago: New entry; Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago: —; Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago: —; Not published both years
Share of its own peak: 0%; Peak was 2022 (7)
Years since peak: 3; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Not enough data; Too few years
Best rank ever: #10,246; 2022

Spellings of Janek

Janek is not the most common spelling — James is, with 76.3% against Janek's <0.01%.

James76.3%5,250,638
Jack11.0%756,943
Jared3.0%206,351
Jake1.9%129,322
Jace1.3%91,544
Jaden1.2%81,469
Zane0.82%56,664
Lane0.69%47,562

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.

Janek around the world

Where Janek 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
1999–2023
#4,992
in 2023
France
1986–2005
#5,354
in 2005
South Australia
1952–1999
#539
in 1999

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Janek by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025: Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago: —
Best rank ever: #10,246; 2022
Peak year: 2022; 7 that year
First recorded: 2009
Last recorded: 2022
All-time count: 29
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Janek

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

Janier Jannik Janai Janel Janus Jante Janvier Janak Janav Jannie Jantz Janell Janeil Jance Jana Janzel Janan Jandre Jansyn Janner Jandy Jangelo Janae Janee

Sibling names for Janek

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

For a sister

Ezra Sapphire Scout Keilani Amayah Shoshana Nila Everlee

For a brother

Kenji Loyal Avi Rayden Kashton Zeke Gian Rishi

Explore around Janek

Top names of 2022, Janek's peak year The 2020s in full Other names that peaked in 2022 Boys' names starting with J