Janice

English

Etymology 1

Variant of Jane under apparent influence from Alice, Bernice, Eunice, etc., from French Jeanne, from Middle French Jehanne, from Medieval Latin Johanna, variant of Latin Ioanna under influence from Latin Iōhannēs, from Koine Greek Ἰωάννα (Iōánna), from Hebrew יוֹחָנָה (Yôḥānāh, literally “God is gracious”), the feminized form of יְהוֹחָנָן (Yəhōḥānān) which produced John and its many doublets. As a placeholder name, cf. similar use of John and Jack and earlier use of Joan in the same role.

Doublet of Ivana, Jana, Janis, Jean, Jeanne, Jen, Joan, Joanna, Joanne, Johanna, Juana, Shavonne, Sian, Siobhan, Shane, Shaun, Shauna, and Sheena.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒænɪs/

Proper noun

Janice

1. A female given name.
   • 1899, Paul Leicester Ford, chapter I, in Janice Meredith:

     "Yes, Mommy," answered Janice. Then she turned to her friend and asked, "Shall I wear my light chintz and kenton kerchief, or my purple and white striped Persian?"
     "Sufficiently smart for a country lass, Jan," cried her friend.

   • 1999, Peter McPhee, Runner, →ISBN, pages 37–8:

     "Now class," she said, "my name is Mrs. Chubbie. I know how most of you would like to pronounce it, but the correct pronunciation is Mrs. Shew-bay."
     "It's Jan-eece," the goth-girl says.
     "Pardon me?" Mrs Shew-bay asks very properly.
     "My name is pronounced Jan-eece. Not Janice." The whole class tries to stop from laughing out loud at this. "I've changed since last year. Janice is the name of some average, boring student. Do I look average to you?"

Alternative forms

• Jan, Janis, Janyce

Etymology 2

Possibly an altered spelling of Jannis; see Janes.

Proper noun

Janice (plural Janices)

1. A surname.

Statistics

• According to the 2010 United States Census, Janice is the 37180^th most common surname in the United States, belonging to 600 individuals. Janice is most common among White (55.83%) and Black/African American (33.33%) individuals.

Further reading

• Hanks, Patrick, editor (2003), “Janice”, in Dictionary of American Family Names, volume 2, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 242.