Janis
From the Greek Ioannes, the same word that gave Poland its everyday Jan: two names, one root, one still wearing its foreign form. Meeting a Janis in Poland is memorable, since most people here have never come across one.
Janis Pronunciation
Janis is pronounced YAH-nyees (/ˈjaɲis/).
What Janis means
Where Janis comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Janis reached European speech through the Greek Ioannes, the form that carried the older Hebrew Yohanan westward. The meaning underneath is direct: god is gracious. Grace here means a gift given rather than earned, and that reading has followed the name across borders.
In the Baltic lands the same root produced Jānis, a name so common in Latvia that the country's midsummer festival, Jāņi, takes its name from it. Poland shaped the stem differently and arrived at Jan, the close domestic cousin of Janis. On a school register the two can sit a few lines apart, near-twins from one Greek word.
The sense is old. Long before it became a label on an official form at the urząd, Ioannes named a thankfulness for something received. Janis keeps that reading intact: god is gracious.
How many people are named Janis
1 in 112943 men in Poland is named Janis. 199 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #2230 among male names.
Janis's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 boys were given the name in 2025. It has been stable for a decade.
Janis as a middle name
Janis is a first name for 199 men in Poland and a middle name for another 36, an 85/15 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 1348th, between Jakób (36) and Jeremiah (36).
-
#1346 Jackson36
-
#1347 Jakób36
-
#1348 Janis36
-
#1349 Jeremiah36
-
#1350 Juda36