View Message

I suppose mostly because not all names can be at the top of the rankings simultaneously. Janina has a distinctly different vibe to the other names you've listed. Still, dusty old names keep increasing in popularity and Janina has been rising through the ranks in recent years, it was at 101 in 2020, so pretty high.

---

For why people weren't too keen on using it for a while? Well, it seemed very generic and bland, while also bringing to mind someone very old, to me it has that musty wood smell to it. Another thing is nicknames. Janina sounds very awkward on a child, and both Janka and Jasia still manage to sound old despite being diminutives, you'd expect them to have the word "grandma" preceding them. And if you prefer Nina, then that's a great fn on its own. I also think that some people might be put off by how in your face it is that it's just a feminine version of the most generic masculine name.

---

I think it's coming back because people having kids now don't necessarily have these associations with it because maybe their great-grandmothers were Janinas but probably not grandmothers so it reached this point where it seems just rare and vintage rather than an old person name.