Where does “Janie” come from?

Janie is an English diminutive formation ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European -kos, a suffix that formed agent nouns and adjectives, passing through Latin -ia and -ivus, Middle French -ie, French -e, and English jane before receiving the English diminutive suffix -ie.

Ancestry of “Janie”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishJaneA woman, often specifically a girlfriend;...
2FrenchJeanneJane, feminine of John
3Old FrenchJehane
4Medieval LatinJohanna
5LatinJoanna
6Ancient GreekἸωάννα
7Hebrewיוֹחָנָה
8HebrewיוֹחָנָןGod is gracious
9HebrewיְהוֹחָנָןGod is gracious
Every word from Hebrew יְהוֹחָנָן