[name_f]Do[/name_f] you find [name_f]Jane[/name_f] plain?
I love it and I’ve been wondering where the whole “plain Jane”, “Jane Doe” thing comes from.
It sort of gives me the idea that [name_f]Jane[/name_f] must have been so common, that people found it so bland that it could be anyone’s name.
So I always believed it to have been very common. But looking it up it never even cracked the top 20. At least not since 1880. Maybe it was more common before?
The highest it placed was at #35.
Probably because it actually rhymes with “plain”. I don’t think it was ever considered more bland or plain than similar names like [name_u]Anne[/name_u], [name_f]Mary[/name_f], and that type. I also don’t think people now would really find it plain. It would be very refreshing and nice to see a baby named [name_f]Jane[/name_f] in this day and age
To my knowledge, Jane Doe simply came about as the feminisation of John Doe.
I agree that “plain Jane” is probably only a popular phrase because it rhymes, not because Jane is more plain than any other classic name. Similarly I don’t think people named Nancy have a stereotype for being pessimistic, but the phrase Negative Nancy is still popular because of the alliteration. If that makes sense as a comparison 
I agree with this - apparently from a brief bit of research, the phrase first appeared in the 1890s (in an article about clothes, and not wanting to fall back to dreary old styles. The phrase itself is: ’ Nay, it is a study which must be pursued very heartily if we would save ourselves from falling back into the barbarous days, and prevent our tastes from sinking into the monotony of the plain Jane and no nonsense order. Dress is a very important thing now-a-days, particularly in the ladies’ world, which world nobody, we are sure, desires to see stripped of anything that adds to its beauty. Another source could be a novel by Joel Chandler Harris around the same period which used the phrase for the central character.
I wonder too if it was even slightly inspired by Jane Eyre - ie - she’s supposed to be plain and ordinary and I know it was popular? Or maybe just a thing that people do, just because the names rhyme (I’m thinking comic characters like Dennis the Menace etc??)
Sorry, that’s so rambly
Yeah, would imagine “plain Jane” is simply because it rhymes, rather than anything marking it out against other similar names.
I know of someone who had a girl called [name_f]Jane[/name_f], she’d probably be about 7 or so now at a guess. Felt a rather refreshing choice, not sure if a family name or if they call her a nickname or any of that as I don’t really know the family, more a friend of a friend occasial acquaintance from ages ago type thing.
[name_f]My[/name_f] third daughter is named [name_f]Jane[/name_f] (11 months old). Not a family name, just one I always loved! It’s strong, beautiful, classic, but not super popular. Anything but plain IMO! 
It is a simple name too. And was very common in addition to rhyming.
It may not have been the highest in popularity since 1880 but Jane is once of those names that has been around since medieval times. It’s like Mary or Ann. I agree that Jane Doe came from John Doe - it does sound like John so again that adds to the classic, or possibly ubiquitous, feeling.
But I agree that ‘plain Jane’ probably evolved purely because it rhymes!
I always thought it was because of [name_f]Jane[/name_f] [name_f]Eyre[/name_f] being plain. I read that somewhere. But [name_f]Jane[/name_f] is relatively uncommon nowadays, so it is a good name to choose. I prefer it spelt [name_f]Jayne[/name_f]. It looks prettier, somehow. Less ‘plain’!