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Janet vs Evelyn

How Janet and Evelyn compare across 146 years of US Social Security Administration baby-name records — popularity history, peak years, current rank, and which name overtook which.

Open Name Tournament

Janet

Female · Hebrew

Meaning: Gift From God

Evelyn

Female · Celtic

Meaning: Light

US Popularity History — Side-by-Side

Annual US births named Janet (girls) vs Evelyn (girls), from US Social Security Administration national records.

Source: US Social Security Administration. Names appearing fewer than 5 times per year are suppressed by SSA.

Quick Stats

Metric Janet Evelyn
Peak year (most US births) 1954 — 18,477 girls 1921 — 14,278 girls
Peak rank #19 #12
Most recent rank (2011) #953 (269 births) #8 (9,123 births)
Total US births since 1880 479,685 555,984
Last 10 years (2002–2011) 4,686 97,423

Peak comparison takeaway

At its all-time peak, Janet reached 18,477 US births in 1954 — 4,199 more than Evelyn's peak count.

Crossover Years

Years where one name first passed the other in annual US births. A name "winning" in a year means it had more births that year, not necessarily a higher rank.

Year New leader Janet births Evelyn births
1933 Janet 7,342 6,948
2000 Evelyn 686 2,223

Strongest States — Last 10 Years

States where each name ranked highest, from SSA's state-level dataset. Lower average rank = name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name list.

Janet — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Maryland #935 16
2 California #1,258 121

Evelyn — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Minnesota #3 2,360
2 Wisconsin #3 2,223
3 Oregon #4 1,348
4 Iowa #4 1,220
5 Idaho #4 719

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Data & methodology

Source: US Social Security Administration national baby names dataset 1880–2025 (CC0 public domain). Names with fewer than 5 occurrences in a given year are suppressed by SSA. State-level coverage runs 1910–2025. Crossover detection compares annual birth counts (not ranks) for each year both names appear. Methodology: see full notes. More comparisons →