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BabyNames
Girl name#49 of girl names

Jean

Pronounced JH IY1 N (ARPABET)

  • 1 syllable
  • Peaked 1927
  • 145 years in use
  • 4 spellings
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How popular is Jean?

Jean is a girls' name, and has been in the record since the data starts in 1880. It has been given to 633,739 children — the 49th most common girls' name on record.

Its use has been broadly flat across the past two decades. Its best single year was 1927, when 16,057 children were given it.

Four other spellings are counted in that total — Jeanne, Gene, Jeane and one more — because they are pronounced identically.

05,00010,00015,00020,00018901920195019802010
192716,057

Spelling variants

These spellings sound identical to Jean and are counted together with it, which is why the totals here are higher than a single-spelling count.

  • Jeanne
  • Gene
  • Jeane
  • Gean

Characteristics

  • 1 syllable
Phonetic detail
Pronunciations:
JH IY1 N
Stress pattern:
1
Syllables:
1

Stress digits mark unstressed (0), primary (1) and secondary (2) syllables.

Names like Jean

Same first letter and syllable count, peaking around the same time.

Sibling names for Jean

Names from the same era with a matching rhythm but a different initial.

Frequently asked questions

How popular is the name Jean?
Jean ranks 49th among girls' names in US records, with 633,739 births since 1880. Over the past decade it accounts for 1,173.
Is Jean a unisex name?
No. Jean is recorded almost entirely as a girls' name; births to the other gender are too few to register as a share.
When was Jean most popular?
1927, when 16,057 children were given the name. It has been in use for 145 years and is still recorded as of 2024.
How else is Jean spelled?
Jeanne, Gene, Jeane, Gean. All of these sound the same and are counted together in the totals on this page.