MEANING & HISTORY
What does Janice mean?
Janice is a form developed in the Jane family, with an ending influenced by names such as Alice or Bernice. Jane ultimately belongs to Hebrew Yohanan, God is gracious, through feminine Greek and Latin forms.
The added ending does not supply a separate ancient root meaning. Janice is consequently related to Joanna and Juana through a documented name chain rather than spelling resemblance alone.
References for this explanation
Pronunciation & syllables
Dictionary readings are kept by language. Select the reading that matches your intended pronunciation. Dots show the source’s written divisions; they are not a universal syllable count across languages.
Wiktionary contributors / Kaikki / Wiktextract · CC BY-SA 4.0
Origin and name formation
Language-specific accounts from the dictionary. A shared spelling can have more than one history.
EnglishEtymology & source
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.
A female given name.
Wiktionary: Janice (English) ↗ · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0
EnglishEtymology & source
Variant of Jeanne, 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 Gianna, Ivana, Jana, Janice, Janis, Jean, Jeanne, Jen, Joan, Joanna, Joanne, Johanna, Juana, Shavonne, Sian, Siobhan, Shane, Shaun, Shauna, and Sheena.
A female given name from French, the standard feminine form of John since the 17th century.
Wiktionary: Janice (English) ↗ · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0
EnglishEtymology & source
From Middle English Alice, from Old French Alys, Alice, from Old High German Adalheid, proposed to derive from Proto-Germanic *aþalaz (“noble”) + *haiduz (“character”). Doublet of Adelaide.
A female given name from the Germanic languages popular in England since the Middle Ages.
Wiktionary: Janice (English) ↗ · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0
EnglishEtymology & source
Biblical form of Berenice, from Ancient Greek Βερενίκη (Bereníkē).
A female given name from Ancient Greek.
Wiktionary: Janice (English) ↗ · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0
EnglishEtymology & source
A biblical name from Ancient Greek Εὐνίκη (Euníkē), from εὐ- (eu-, “good”) + νίκη (níkē, “victory”).
A female given name from Ancient Greek.
Wiktionary: Janice (English) ↗ · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0
Adapted from Wiktionary contributors via Kaikki/Wiktextract. Source accounts remain in their original English; editorial summaries and filters are adapted. Attribution and downloads
People with the name Janice
Public figures and other documented namesakes linked by an explicit given-name claim. This is a selection of records, not a popularity ranking.
DOCUMENTED NAMESAKE
Janice de Belen
Filipino actress
DOCUMENTED NAMESAKE
Janice Jurado
actor
The record establishes the name association, not the person’s intended meaning, pronunciation or ancestry. Descriptions are attributed to Wikidata contributors (CC0).
Use in Philippine-linked records
Public-record transcription
1
eligible source records · 2001
This spelling is reported in an openly licensed transcription of elected-candidate records. This is a record count, not a birth count or national popularity measure.
OpenHalalan / COMELEC ↗Wikidata
4
distinct person records with an explicit given-name claim
Community-edited coverage, not a census or birth registry. Examples: Janice de Belen, Janice Jurado
PSA · OFFICIAL BIRTH RECORDS
Janice in the birth records
Exact spelling and stated year in the published name tables. Read the counts as individual snapshots.
Tables included: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024. The 2016 fact sheet lists five names per sex; the later tables include ten. Missing counts are not inferred. Sex categories follow the official tables, independently of dictionary gender labels. Explore the official tables →
Similar names to Janice
Names with a similar opening or ending, ordered by spelling distance. Similar spelling does not imply the same meaning or origin.
Names in this collection
- Janine♀Familiar form of Jeanne; God is gracious
- Alice♀Noble kind; through Old French Aalis
- Candice♀Variant of Candace, from a royal title
- Eunice♀Good victory
- Jaime♂♀Spanish form of James, from Jacob
- Jamie♂♀Affectionate form of James
- Jamile♂♀Beautiful, through Arabic Jamila and Jamil
- Jane♀God is gracious; a feminine form of John
What rhymes with Janice?
Matches share a dictionary-supplied rhyme key in the stated language. Check the recorded reading; another language or accent can change the rhyme.
Explore Janice further
Follow the sources
- OpenHalalan — pinned 2001 COMELEC transcription (opens in a new tab)
Source-reported given-name form in a row with a separate explicit middle initial; ODbL-1.0.
- COMELEC — 2001 List of Elected Candidates (opens in a new tab)
Original document identified by the transcription; selected PDF entries were spot-checked, not every imported row.
- Wikidata given-name item Q16277291 — Janice (opens in a new tab)
Given-name identity, native labels, language associations and explicit class where present; not lexical meaning or population frequency.
- Wikidata — Janice de Belen (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name claim P735 linking to Q16277291 and citizenship claim P27 linking to Philippines Q928; community-edited evidence, not a civil-registry record.
- Wikidata — Janice Jurado (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name claim P735 linking to Q16277291 and citizenship claim P27 linking to Philippines Q928; community-edited evidence, not a civil-registry record.
- Wiktionary contributors — Janice (English) (opens in a new tab)
Language-specific given-name etymology; shared spelling does not prove every bearer has this origin.
- Wiktionary contributors — Janice (English) (opens in a new tab)
Language-specific given-name etymology; shared spelling does not prove every bearer has this origin.
- Wiktionary contributors — Janice (English) (opens in a new tab)
Language-specific given-name etymology; shared spelling does not prove every bearer has this origin.
- Wiktionary contributors — Janice (English) (opens in a new tab)
Language-specific given-name etymology; shared spelling does not prove every bearer has this origin.
- Wiktionary contributors — Janice (English) (opens in a new tab)
Language-specific given-name etymology; shared spelling does not prove every bearer has this origin.
- Wiktionary: Janice (opens in a new tab)
Personal-name formation and etymological relationships; imported dictionary account consulted.