Janet
Barely 143 women in Poland carry it, so most Poles have never met a Janet. The name reaches Polish through English from Hebrew, where it means "god is gracious," and no newborn has been given it in years.
Janet Pronunciation
Janet is pronounced YAH-net (/ˈjanɛt/).
What Janet means
Where Janet comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Janet began as a nickname. In medieval England and Scotland, people shortened Jane and added the small ending -et, and Janet was the result. Jane itself comes from the Old French Jehanne, a feminine form of John, and John reaches back to the Hebrew Yohanan, "God is gracious."
The meaning traveled a long road to arrive. The Hebrew root says that God shows favor, and that sense held as the name passed through Latin Johanna and French into English use.
Janet has real bearers to point to. Janet Leigh acted the shower scene in Psycho (1960). Janet Jackson built a pop career across the 1980s and 1990s. The name peaked in the English-speaking world around the middle of the twentieth century, then grew rarer.
In Poland the name stays uncommon. A teacher reading a class register will more likely find Janina or Joanna, both grown from the same John root. Janet still means what its oldest layer meant: God is gracious.
How many people are named Janet
1 in 157649 women in Poland is named Janet. 143 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #2740 among female names.
Janet as a middle name
Janet is a first name for 143 women in Poland and a middle name for another 75, a 66/34 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 774th, between Hortensja (75) and Loretta (75).
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#772 Fryda75
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#773 Hortensja75
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#774 Janet75
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#775 Loretta75
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#776 Maia75