Name Awesome

Janell

#6,417 in 2025Girls' name

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Janell has been given to 15,756 babies in the U.S. since 1914. In 2025 it ranked #6,417 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1979, with 416 recorded.

Babies named Janell, 2025

1 in 184,000

Janell over time, 1880–2025

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Janell: meaning, origin, and history

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Janell means

Janell is a given name.

The naming story behind Janell

Wikidata records Janell as a given name. The entity identifier is Q136538934, 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, 15,733 girls were recorded with the name Janell between 1914 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 416 in 1979; its best national rank was #490 in 1979.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #3,805 in 2020 to #6,417 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #3,555 in 2015 to #6,417 in 2025.

In the United States, 23 boys were recorded with the name Janell between 1979 and 2003. Its highest annual count was 8 in 1987; its best national rank was #5,155 in 1987.

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 Janell?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 184,000
18 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 89,300
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#6,417
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
127,662 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Janell 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 127,662 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Janell. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Janells were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Janell was born before 1975 — so the typical Janell is around 50 today.

Median birth year
1975
About 50 years old
Biggest decade
1970s
18.1% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
11.0%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
13,770
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1970s — 18.1% of all recorded uses (2,852).

Is Janell 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
−2,347
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−2,612
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−2,862
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.41×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
4.3%
Peak was 1979 (416)
Years since peak
46
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
19.7% average annual change
Best rank ever
#490
1979

Spellings of Janell

Janell is not the most common spelling — Janet is, with 45.6% against Janell's 1.3%.

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 Janell is used

Across 1910–2025, Janell was most concentrated in North Dakota — about 1 in 4,167 girls, against 1 in 13,502 across all states with data. It was least common in Tennessee (1 in —).

024 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1North Dakota1 in 4,167
  2. 2Kansas1 in 4,545
  3. 3Louisiana1 in 5,263
  4. 4Minnesota1 in 6,250
  5. 5Oregon1 in 6,250
  6. 6Washington1 in 6,667
  7. 7Colorado1 in 7,143
  8. 8Iowa1 in 7,692

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. Janell has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Janell around the world

Where Janell 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
    2004–2019
    #5,591
    in 2019
  • France
    2003–2016
    #6,202
    in 2016
  • Canada
    1991–2004
    #2,752
    in 2004
  • South Australia
    1949–1993
    #712
    in 1993

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

Janell by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#6,417
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 2,612
Best rank ever
#490
1979
Peak year
1979
416 that year
First recorded
1914
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
15,733
Count in 2025
18

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#5,155
1987
Peak year
1987
8 that year
First recorded
1979
Last recorded
2003
All-time count
23
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Janell

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

JannieJaniyaJanineJannaJanessaJanaeJaniyahJanelJannellJanethJaniahJanayaJanetteJanettJaninaJanayJannahJewellJanisJaneyJanylaJanelyJaniseIsabell

Names with a curve like Janell

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

JannaDavidRenaeLeeannMichaelRosalindaSuzannaRoxannaTanaCharmaineJoleenLeann

Sibling names for Janell

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 Janell

Top names of 1979, Janell's peak yearThe 1970s in fullOther names that peaked in 1979Girls' names starting with J