Jestine
Feminine · “fair”
Justine Siegemund delivered babies in seventeenth-century Brandenburg and then wrote the book. It was the first medical text published by a woman in Germany, it was written as a dialogue between a midwife and a student, and before it could be printed she had to submit to an examination by a university faculty to prove she knew what she was talking about.
How old is the name Jestine?
Jestine first appears in US birth records in 1909 — 116 years ago. The typical Jestine alive today was born around 1951, making them about 74 years old. About 600 people named Jestine are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jestine most popular?
Jestine peaked in 1936, reaching #1873 nationally. See the whole 1936 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From a Latin word for what is lawful gives the Roman name to Jestine
The story of Jestine
She had been badly treated by a midwife herself as a young woman, taught herself from books and from practice, and worked for decades before writing. The book explains techniques for difficult presentations that were not otherwise in print, is illustrated with copperplates, and argues throughout for cleanliness and against unnecessary intervention. The examination she had to pass was a formality designed to humiliate; she passed it, the book went through several editions, and it was still being used as a manual a century later.
Meaning
fair, just
The name is the feminine of a Roman one built on the Latin word for what is right or lawful — the same root that gives English justice, judge and jury. This spelling replaces the first vowel with an e, which is what the unstressed syllable actually sounds like, and it is one of a small set of American respellings of a name that has never been common in English.
How the name formed
- a Latin word for what is lawful gives the Roman name
- Justina and Justine in European use
- a German midwife publishes the first medical book by a woman there
- American families respell the unstressed vowel
- Jestine appears in the record in the 1900s
Related forms: Justine · Justine · Justina
Pronouncing Jestine
juh-STEEN
Two syllables with the stress at the back. The altered vowel sits in the unstressed syllable and makes no audible difference.
Nicknames for Jestine
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1909
- Most girls named
- 194926 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1873reached in 1936
- Change vs 2007
- −33.3%6 in 2009, from 9
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Jestine in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Justine in French — spelling variant
- Justine in German — spelling variant
- Justina in Latin — related form
Jestines among us
people named Jestine are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Jestine sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Jess is available in this spelling in a way it is not in the standard one.
- The meaning is clear, favorable and easy to explain.
- It is genuinely rare while sounding entirely familiar.
- Justine is the standard spelling and this one will be corrected regularly.
- A notorious eighteenth-century novel carries the standard name as its title.
- It is firmly of the early twentieth century in American use.
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Jestine
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Jestines are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Jestine are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Jestine in 2025?
- Jestine is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Jestine with classmates?
- Jestine will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More J names
The most-given names starting with J, all years combined.
Jennifer#586 · Jessica#665 · Janet#2778 · Julie#872 · Joyce#1071 · Joan#1085 · Julia#131 · Jean#2117
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jestine? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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