girl's name

Jeannine

zhah-NEEN

  • Origin French
  • Gender Girl
  • Letters 8
  • Popularity Rare
  • Births on record 242,854

Jeannine is a girl's name meaning God is gracious, a French diminutive of Jeanne. It is the first name on this site our data marks as faded rather than falling — it peaked at 10,995 French births in 1930 and no longer charts in France at all.

  • Jeannine is a name of French origin.
  • Peaked in France in 1930, when 10,995 babies were given the name.
  • It has largely dropped out of use in France.
  • First appears in birth records in 1900.

Jeannine over time

Births per decade in France, 1900s to 2010s. The striped bar is the 2010s, still in progress — it covers 2010 to 2015, not a full ten years.

89,795
'00 '10 '20 '30 '40 '50 '60 '70 '80 '90 '00 '10
Show the numbers
Births named Jeannine by decade in France
Decade Births
1900s 455
1910s 3,150
1920s 59,580
1930s 89,795
1940s 44,000
1950s 17,535
1960s 3,555
1970s 455
1980s 105
1990s 35
2000s 20
2010s (to 2015) 10

What Jeannine means

Jeannine means God is gracious, carried through Jeanne from the Hebrew Yochanan. The -ine ending is a French diminutive and adds affection rather than meaning.

Where Jeannine comes from

Jeannine is a French diminutive of Jeanne, the feminine of Jean, from the Hebrew Yochanan — a form of the divine name joined to a verb meaning to show favor. The -ine ending is the same one in Josephine, Delphine and Martine. French naming produced an unusual number of feminine diminutives of Jean — Jeanne, Jeannette, Jeannine, Jeanine — and they rose and fell together through the twentieth century, which is why none of them survives in numbers today while the masculine Jean continues.

Jeannine in use

Jeannine peaked in France in 1930, when 10,995 babies were registered, and it is the first name in our written pages that our data marks as faded rather than falling — a distinct category for names that have effectively dropped out of use. It now charts in exactly one of the six markets we track, at 10836th in the United States on 9 births, across 242,854 lifetime births. It no longer appears in the French tables at all, despite France holding essentially all of its history.

How popular is Jeannine?

In 2015, Jeannine was given to 5 babies in France. It is a rare choice.

Where Jeannine is used

Canada #2,958 7 in 2023
France #7,745 5 in 2015
United States #10,836 9 in 2025

The bar shows how near the top of each country's list the name sits, on a scale where #1 fills the row and #1,000 is a sliver. The figures beside it are the real rank and the babies recorded that year.

French counts are rounded to the nearest five and nothing below five is published, so these figures show the shape of the name's use rather than an exact tally. Data & sources.

Names that peaked alongside Jeannine

These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.

Parents who like Jeannine also like

Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Jeannine over the last century — the same taste, a different name.

1 nickname for Jeannine

Each one is a name in its own right — the figure underneath is how it is doing today, so you can see which short forms are rising and which have faded.

Every name with built-in nicknames →

Jeannine in other languages

The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.

Sibling names for Jeannine

Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Jeannine — the two things that make a sibling set grate.

Common questions about Jeannine

What does the name Jeannine mean?

God is gracious, carried through Jeanne from the Hebrew Yochanan.

Is Jeannine still used?

Barely. It no longer charts in France at all, and holds 10836th in the United States on 9 births.

Is it Jeannine or Jeanine?

Both are used in French; Jeannine with the doubled n is the more common in our data.

How popular is Jeannine?

It peaked at 10,995 French births in 1930 and has effectively dropped out of use.

Is Jeannine a girl's or a boy's name?

Jeannine is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.

What are the nicknames for Jeannine?

Jeannine is usually shortened to Nine.

Is Jeannine a good name?

That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Jeannine currently ranks #10,836 in France. It has largely dropped out of use. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.