Jannes
given name · Latin script
Meaning: The etymology of Jannes is uncertain, with scholars suggesting either an Egyptian or Hebrew origin
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/ˈjanəs/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Jannes is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the Netherlands than in any other country.
- NLNetherlands1 in 3.5K(measured from records)
- DEGermany≈1 in 34K
- BEBelgium≈1 in 35K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Netherlands (measured from records)
- Sources
- 120 (measured from records)
- 1 in 3.5K (inferred from the name graph)
4,968 people
Highest-authority source
Netherlands
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
The etymology of Jannes is uncertain, with scholars suggesting either an Egyptian or Hebrew origin. Some propose it may be a Hellenized form of an Egyptian name, while others connect it to the Hebrew root חנן (hanan), meaning 'to be gracious,' similar to the name John.
Sources 1
- Biblical Names Compiled Database
Attested across 11 languages in the etymology graph.
How Jannes is read(measured from records)
Jannes is one spelling over 4 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.
- German40%
niederdeutsch-friesische Kurzform von
as a nameDUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen
- Dutch18%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Jannes in Dutch.
- English13%
Biblical name
as a namePronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names
- Indonesian8.3%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Jannes in Indonesian.
The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Jannes counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NL Netherlands | 4,968 | 1 in 3.5K | 5K | Jannes | 67 |
| DE Germany | ≈2,300 est. | ≈1 in 34K | listed | Jannes | 120 |
| BE Belgium | ≈330 est. | ≈1 in 35K | 384 | Jannes | 50 |
| ZA South Africa | ≈210 est. | ≈1 in 270K | — | Jannes | 17 |
| PH Philippines | ≈160 est. | ≈1 in 696K | — | Jannes | 11 |
| SE Sweden | 45 | 1 in 227K | 45 | Jannes | 5 |
| EE Estonia | ≈5 est. | ≈1 in 235K | 5 | — | 2 |
4,968 people counted by Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (all-time BRP bearer counts, 2018). Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (all-time BRP bearer counts, 2018); the dfa-band-6 register; Familienaam.be — Belgian family-name frequency (population register); Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population); Statistics Estonia — per-name Population Register counts (nimed). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Jannes is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
The etymology of Jannes is uncertain, with scholars suggesting either an Egyptian or Hebrew origin. Some propose it may be a Hellenized form of an Egyptian name, while others connect it to the Hebrew root חנן (hanan), meaning 'to be gracious,' similar to the name John.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
Jannes is a rare name in English-speaking countries, primarily known for its biblical association with one of the magicians who opposed Moses. It is a Dutch and Low German form of Johannes (John) and means "God is gracious".
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
In Christian theology, Jannes and Jambres serve as a cautionary example of those who actively resist divine truth. Their opposition to Moses is used by the Apostle Paul to illustrate the character of false teachers who are corrupt and whose folly will eventually be exposed to everyone.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Jan Smitb. 1939NLnot in their usual nameDutch CDA politician (born 1939)
- Jannes Munnekeb. 1949NLDutch rower
- Jannes van der Walb. 1956NLDutch draughts player (1956–1996)
- Jannes Eiselenb. 1980USAmerican actor (1980-2016)
- Jannes Vansteenkisteb. 1993BEBelgian footballer
- Jannes Kirstenb. 1993ZASouth African rugby union footballer
- Jannes Hornb. 1997DEGerman association football player
- Jannes Wieckhoffb. 2000DEGerman association football player
- Jannes Van Heckeb. 2002BEBelgian association football player
- Jannes Heuvelmansb. 2003NLDutch singer (b. 2003)
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 35 sources across 19 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BE Belgium | Familienaam.be — Belgian family-name frequency (population register) | 2008 | 384 | #4,106 |
| BE Belgium | Statbel — Noms de famille (family names) | — | 381 | #4,241 |
| NL Netherlands | CBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007) | 2007 | 107 | #18,033 |
| SE Sweden | Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population) | — | 24 | #22,233 |
| DE Germany | Deutscher Familiennamenatlas Band 6 | — | — | — |
Reference works 3
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Jannes mean, and where does it come from?
- The etymology of Jannes is uncertain, with scholars suggesting either an Egyptian or Hebrew origin. Recorded by Biblical Names Compiled Database.
- Is Jannes a male or female name?
- Jannes is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- How do you pronounce Jannes?
- A machine transcription gives /ˈjanəs/ (IPA) for German.
- What are other forms of the name Jannes?
- In the etymology graph, Johann is a form of the same name in other languages.
- In which country does Jannes have the most bearers?
- In the Netherlands, the national register counted about 5.0 thousand people named Jannes, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled jannes.
- Where is Jannes most common?
- Jannes is densest in the Netherlands, where the national register counts about 1 in 3.5 thousand people carrying it.
- How common is the name Jannes?
- In the Netherlands, the national register counted 4,968 people named Jannes, about 1 in 3.5 thousand residents.
What do you want to know about Jannes?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/jannesThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Jannes”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.