Entry № 4791 · Marathi origin

Janabai Janabai — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ JAH-nah-bai /
Gender
Girl
Origin
Marathi
Meaning
"Marathi slave-saint poet"
Syllables
3
First recorded
Medieval (Marathi)

A name that means "marathi slave-saint poet".

Janabai (c. 1258-c. 1350) was the Marathi Varkari poet-saint — born a low-caste Shudra, sold as a household servant to the family of Saint Namdev in Pandharpur. She wrote over 300 surviving abhangs (devotional songs) to Vithoba — composing while grinding grain and sweeping floors. Her poems are remarkable for their intimacy with the divine, often portraying Vithoba as helping her with domestic chores.

Featured in Mahipati's Bhaktavijaya (1762).

Marathi slave-saint poet. Vithoba helped her grind grain in her songs.

The name in its native script.

जनाबाई
Transliteration
Janābāī
Pronunciation
/ ˈdʒɑː.nə.baɪ /
Root
Grammatical form

Where Janabai stands.

Janabai does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.

Janabais before her.

Real people
Janabai
Marathi Varkari poet.
c. 1258 – c. 1350
In fiction
Janabai
Marathi abhangs.

Names connected to Janabai.

The number behind Janabai.

2

The Peacemaker

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Janabai reduce to 2, The Peacemaker. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.