Jane

given name · English · Latin script

Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

Jane is a given name, most frequently recorded in the United Kingdom, where it is the 53rd most common given name. It appears chiefly in English and Portuguese, written in the Latin script. Recorded meaning: from the medieval personal name Jan, a form of John; later Jane became a female name.

rarermore common
  • GBUnited Kingdom1 in 349◐
  • PHPhilippines1 in 360
  • AUAustralia1 in 366

carrying the name, one hue, darker where it is more common. Hover a country for its figure.

≈460K ●

across 10 countries

#415 ●

of 16M given names

3 ●

recorded for this name

Sources
554 ●

5.4M records

Official registry-verified

1 in 342 ◐

Latvia

Spellings & scripts●

JaneLatin · English●5.7M records
재인Hangul · Korean●11K records
ጃኔEthiopic · Amharic●5 records

One other spelling is counted as the same name:

Locally spelled Jain in IN India, 재인 in KR South Korea and Jein in ID Indonesia.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

from the medieval personal name Jan, a form of John; later Jane became a female name.

Sources 1

  • Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]

Attested across 7 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world●

Sorted by bearers counted by national registers, records where none counts.

Where Jane is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
GB United Kingdom#53592,091433K rec.—9Jane287
PH Philippines#16463,743404K rec.——Jane171
US United States#112354,3813.8M rec.1 in 939354KJane554
AU Australia#62316,512271K rec.—107Jane283
CA Canada#121102,40098K rec.—20Jane230
BR Brazil—70,075△140 rec.1 in 3K77KJane10
IT Italy#27631,70732K rec.—listedJane103
DE Germany#58325,32125K rec.—1Jane165
NZ New Zealand#2622,40420K rec.—15Jane147
ZA South Africa#12219,60420K rec.——Jane116
NG Nigeria#46516,44523K rec.—listedJane111
KR South Korea#90314,1247K rec.—471재인91

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table. How that works.

Languages●

  • English5.7M66%
  • Portuguese1.2M14%
  • Spanish342K4%
  • 299K3%
  • Swahili292K3%
Show as table
Languages in which the name is recorded
NameRecordsNote
English5,704,15066%
Portuguese1,230,96214%
Spanish341,5954%
298,6913%
Swahili291,8773%

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Jane is also recorded as 8 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Portuguese given name1.7M records spelled Jane6 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Brazil, United States, Philippines, Spain

    Languages: Portuguese, Spanish

    Also written Jané, Janë, Jane'

  • a separate given name335K records spelled Jane6 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, India, United Kingdom, Canada

    Also written Jané, Jáně, Jáne, Janė, Jañe

  • Swahili given name316K records spelled Jane3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Kenya, United States, Philippines, Nigeria

    Languages: Swahili, Southern Sotho

    Also written Jané

  • French given name111K records spelled Jane18 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, United States, United Kingdom, Philippines

    Languages: French, Catalan

    Also written Jané, Jañe, Jãňë, Janè, JãNe

  • Indonesian given name45K records spelled Jane7 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Indonesia, Philippines, United States, Malaysia

    Languages: Indonesian, Malay

    Also written 'Jane, Jané, Jäñë, Jånë, Jānĕ

  • Hindi given name41K records spelled Jane5 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, India, United Kingdom, Philippines

    Languages: Hindi, Urdu

    Also written Jané, Jänë

  • Polish given name28K records spelled Jane9 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Poland, United States, Czechia, United Kingdom

    Languages: Polish, Czech, Croatian

    Also written Jané, Jáne, Jáné, Jáně

  • Finnish given name14K records spelled Jane4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Finland, United States, Estonia, United Kingdom

    Languages: Finnish, Estonian

    Also written Jané, Jänë

99 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Jane is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • In French, English form of Jeanne/Jean, Hebrew Yohanan, 'God is gracious'.

    as a nameDictionnaire généalogique des prénoms

  • In English, Well-known feminine form of John, from Old French Jehane; gaelicised as Sinéad.

    as a nameIrish first names

  • In English, variant spelling of Catalan Gener ‘January’, from Latin Januarius.

    as a nameDictionary of American Family Names

  • In English, given name Jan, a var. of John. (As a given name, Jane was not specialized as a female form until the 17th cent.) Vars.: Jain(e), Jayne; Jean; Jenn(e), Genn. Patrs.: Ja(y)nes, Jeynes; Jean(e)s, Jeens, Jeneson; Jan(ni)s, Janson; Jenns, Jenness, Jen(n)ison.

    as a nameA dictionary of surnames

  • Originally a feminine form of John, from the Old French form Je(h)anne.

    as a nameA concise dictionary of first names

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

02.5K5K7.5K10K1900195020009.9K · 1947

Show as table
Jane in SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present), United States, 1880–2025
Yearrecords
1880215
1881216
1882254
1883247
1884295
1885330
1886306
1887288
1888446
1889374
1890372
1891379
1892396
1893354
1894390
1895394
1896413
1897396
1898406
1899382
1900495
1901325
1902388
1903381
1904395
1905393
1906438
1907526
1908531
1909626
1910709
1911937
19121,390
19131,759
19142,340
19153,264
19163,826
19174,258
19184,730
19194,527
19205,054
19215,188
19224,805
19234,917
19245,104
19254,881
19264,641
19274,695
19284,411
19294,353
19304,575
19314,532
19324,348
19334,377
19344,358
19354,646
19364,719
19374,702
19384,786
19394,771
19405,091
19415,090
19425,707
19436,032
19446,564
19457,639
19468,971
19479,943
19488,781
19498,719
19508,964
19518,942
19529,322
19538,913
19548,343
19558,343
19568,241
19577,788
19587,199
19596,864
19606,586
19616,365
19626,114
19635,767
19644,567
19653,927
19663,213
19672,729
19682,192
19691,880
19701,601
19711,296
19721,160
1973957
1974827
1975782
1976697
1977744
1978699
1979720
1980775
1981762
1982845
1983784
1984725
1985709
1986669
1987668
1988723
1989779
1990773
1991708
1992652
1993691
1994706
1995618
1996639
1997648
1998638
1999618
2000647
2001671
2002696
2003704
2004657
2005651
2006665
2007775
2008826
2009831
2010833
2011868
2012927
2013898
20141,026
20151,112
20161,135
20171,157
20181,133
20191,189
20201,169
20211,172
20221,089
20231,116
20241,186
20251,380

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 146 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

1400160018002000Lady Jane Grey, b. 1537Jane Addams, b. 1860Nellie Bly, b. 1864Shirley Temple, b. 1928Jane Goodall, b. 1934Barbara Liskov, b. 1939Jane Birkin, b. 1946Victoria Nuland, b. 1961Olivia Wilde, b. 1984Lily Collins, b. 1989
  • Lady Jane Greyb. 1537GBQueen of England and Ireland in July 1553
  • Jane Addamsb. 1860USAmerican feminist social activist, reformer, social worker, sociologist, philosopher, and writer (1860–1935)
  • Nellie Blyb. 1864USnot in their usual nameAmerican journalist
  • Shirley Templeb. 1928USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress and diplomat (1928–2014)
  • Jane Goodallb. 1934GBEnglish primatologist and anthropologist (1934–2025)
  • Barbara Liskovb. 1939USnot in their usual nameAmerican computer scientist
  • Jane Birkinb. 1946FRBritish-French actress and singer (1946–2023)
  • Victoria Nulandb. 1961USnot in their usual nameAmerican diplomat (born 1961)
  • Olivia Wildeb. 1984USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress and film director (born 1984)
  • Lily Collinsb. 1989GBnot in their usual nameBritish-American actress (born 1989)

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Attested in 129 sources across 70 countries.

Official registers attesting Jane
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex2020354K#140
BR BrazilIBGE — Nomes (census name API)—77K#566
BR BrazilIBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror)202270K—
BR BrazilIBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname)—69K#429
DK DenmarkDanmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts)—10K#69
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des prénoms (1900–2024)20248.6K#735
SE SwedenSkatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population)—7K#504
NO NorwaySSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population)—6.8K#530
SE SwedenSCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023)20203.1K—
NO NorwaySSB PxWebApi — Persons/Last names by year (StatBank tables 10501/12891)20252.3K—
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex20202.2K#140
ES SpainINE — Apellidos más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal)—1.7K#2,733

Reference works 7

  • Dictionary of American Family Names
  • The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
  • Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
  • Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
  • Wikipedia given-name tokens
  • Wikipedia surname tokens
  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 1,483 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Jane?
We estimate roughly 460 thousand people bear Jane (counting its spellings and scripts) across 10 countries in our records.
In which country does Jane have the most bearers?
Jane is most frequently recorded in the United Kingdom, where it is most often spelled jane.
Where is Jane most common?
Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Jane is densest in Latvia — about 1 in 342 people — even though United Kingdom holds more of our records for it.
How common is Jane compared with other names?
In the United Kingdom, Jane is the 53rd most common given name of 369,273 given names recorded there.
Is Jane a male or female name?
Jane is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
What does the name Jane mean?
Recorded meaning: from the medieval personal name Jan, a form of John; later Jane became a female name.
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/jane

The same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use. Bulk access and licensing.

About this data

● measured from records◐ inferred from the name graph○ machine-generated

Data snapshot . Figures are rebuilt periodically and will change.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Jane” — the 53rd most common given name in United Kingdom. Data snapshot 2026-09-12.

See how Jane parses inside a full name →