Janice

Meaning of Janice

Janice, pronounced JAN-is (/ˈdʒænɪs/), is a feminine elaboration of Jane—ultimately traced to the Hebrew Yōḥānān, “Yahweh is gracious”—fashioned in the early twentieth century when Anglophone naming patterns favored the soft, latinate suffix –ice; the form has occasionally invited a scholarly nod to the Roman gate-keeper Janus, yet its etymological pedigree remains firmly biblical. United States vital-records data show a steep ascent after the First World War, a sustained crest in the 1950s when Janice held a secure place inside the national Top 40, and a controlled, decades-long decline that positions it today near the lower end of the Top 900, rendering it statistically familiar but socially distinctive. Cultural memory preserves the name through figures such as supermodel Janice Dickinson and the guitar-strumming Muppet Janice, associations that root it in mid-century popular culture without confining it to that era; combined with its core meaning of divine graciousness, Janice offers contemporary parents a historically grounded, gently retro option that remains linguistically graceful and semantically affirmative.