Jean

270,231 people in America carry this name — ranked #198 of 923.

Carried mostly by the Greatest Generation.

Say it JEEN

1 syllable · the capitals are the stressed part

Phonetic transcription

JH IY1 N — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.

  • People counted 270,231 2020 Census
  • Rank #198 Common
  • Per 100,000 89.5 about 1 in 1,227 people
  • As a surname 24,740 ranked #1,401 the other way round

The meaning and origin of Jean

Hebrew in origin, reading literally as “grace of the Lord”.

Origins are a matter of scholarly argument rather than record, and a name can be traced more than one way. We state one reading and say where it came from.

Jean through the years

482,321 babies were given this name since 1880. The busiest year was 1927, with 12,774 of them.

80 90 00 10 20s 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 00 10 20

Most people carrying it were born in the 1920s. It has been given less often of late.

Counted from Social Security card applications, so it covers births registered in the United States and leaves out names given to fewer than five babies in a year.

Middle names that fit Jean

One syllable, so a longer middle name gives the whole a rhythm.

Better avoided

  • Jean Jennifer — same opening
  • Jean Nancy — runs together
  • Jean Kathleen — rhymes

Chosen by sound from the pronouncing dictionary, then ordered by how often the name is given. None of it is a rule — the ear decides.

A name from before the war

The year most children were called Jean was 1927. Names of that age tend to come back once their owners are grandparents.

Is Jean used for boys or for girls?

15.6% men
228,208 women

As recorded on census returns, not as anyone thinks the name ought to be used.

This name in other languages

  • Jan Nor.|Dutch|Eng
  • Ian Scottish
  • Ans Lett
  • Jens Danish
  • Ivka Ill
  • Hans Ger.|Dutch
  • Eoin Irish
  • Ants Esth
  • Shawn Ir
  • Jehan French
  • Janos Hungarian
  • Janne Danish
  • Janke Lus
  • Janez Slov

Forms of one name traced to the same root. Spellings are as the glossary printed them, so some look older than the versions in use today.

How Jean is spelled

Jean is how 72% of them spell it — 374,796 people answer to the sound.

Each spelling is its own census entry — the counts never overlap, so the shares are of the group, not of the country.

Names about as common

The nearest entries above and below by number of people.

Where in America Jean is thickest on the ground

In Massachusetts the name is given 2.5 times as often as it is across the country.

  • Massachusetts ×2.5
  • Wisconsin ×2.4
  • New York ×2.3
  • Minnesota ×2.0
  • Rhode Island ×1.9

Measured against the state's own share of births since 1960, so a small state can lead a big one. Counted from Social Security card applications.

Same syllables and stress as Jean

Ends on the same sound

Same rhythm — 1 syllables, stress on the first

Matched on phonemes, not spelling, so the lists follow the ear rather than the page.

The likeliest full names

The census counts first names and surnames separately and never together, so these are estimates: how often the two halves would meet if they paired at random. They do not — names cluster by community — so read them as an order of magnitude, not a headcount.

Try it First-Year Costs

Open First-Year Costs on its own page

Where this page gets its numbers

  • Counts, ranks and shares: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census tabulations of first and last names occurring 100 or more times. Percentages, bands and groupings are our own arithmetic — the conclusions are ours, not the Bureau’s.
  • Pronunciation, syllables and rhyme groups: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, Carnegie Mellon University. The plain-English respelling is ours.
  • Origins and the forms a name takes in other languages: Charlotte Yonge, History of Christian Names, 1884 — a public-domain work. Scholarship has moved on since, so read it as one reading of a name, not the last word.

Below a hundred people we publish no figure at all — the same threshold the Census Bureau applies to us. What each source covers
Other names of Hebrew origin