Jane

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Girl · Hebrew, through Latin and French

Jane

Say it: JAYN

Try it with your surname

Meaning

An English form of Old French Jehanne, feminine of John, from Hebrew 'Yahweh is gracious'.

Certainscholars agree on this meaning.

Rose in the 16th century as the fashionable form of Joan and soon overtook it.

Its wave through time

Fading since the 1940s

In the United States

024618801900192019401960198020002020Peak 1945per 1,000 babies of that sex
  • 375,024 babies given this name since 1880
  • At its height in 1945, about 1 in 171 girls
  • 1,154 babies in 2020

Through the ages

  1. The Renaissance1400 to 1600
  2. The Colonial Americas1500 to 1800
  3. Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
  4. The Modern Age1880 to today

Used by

EnglishAmerican

The family of the name

Other spellings: Jayne, Jaine

FrenchJeanne
LatinJohanna
Scottish GaelicSìne
IrishSiobhán

Famous bearers

  • Jane Seymour, queen of Henry VIII
  • Lady Jane Grey

Names worth a look

Where this comes from

  • Royal and noble genealogies
  • Parish baptism registers
  • United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
  • United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source

Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.

Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.