Julia
Masculine
Julia is given to girls far more often — 476,250 girls against 1,743 boys since 1880. See Julia as a girl name
The woman who taught America to cook French food spent the war in intelligence. She worked for the American wartime spy service, filing and then handling classified documents in Ceylon and China, and among the projects she is credited with is helping develop a shark repellent for the undersides of explosive devices meant for submarines.
How old is the name Julia?
Julia first appears in US birth records in 1882 — 143 years ago. The typical Julia alive today was born around 1957, making them about 68 years old. About 1,000 people named Julia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Julia most popular?
Julia peaked in 1901, reaching #487 nationally. See the whole 1901 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Iulia to Julia
The story of Julia
Roman women did not have first names in the way that men did. A daughter took the feminine of her father's clan name and that was essentially it, so every daughter of a Julius was Julia and sisters were distinguished by an added elder or younger, or in larger families by a number — a third and a fourth daughter could be called Tertia and Quarta with no further ceremony. That is a genuinely different way of thinking about identity: a woman's name told you which family she belonged to and nothing at all about her.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The Roman family name behind it has no established meaning. The family's own claim about its descent is discussed elsewhere and is a claim rather than an etymology.
How the name formed
- Iulia
- Julia
Related forms: Giulia · Julia · Julia · Julia
Pronouncing Julia
JOO-lee-uh
Three syllables with the stress at the front. Most European languages say it almost identically, which makes the name unusually stable.
Nicknames for Julia
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
- 1882
- Most boys named
- 198957 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #487reached in 1901
- Change vs 2016
- −33.3%6 in 2020, 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.
Julia in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Giulia in Italian — same name
- Julia in Spanish — same name
- Julia in German — same name
- Julia in Polish — same name
Julias among us
people named Julia 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
Julia 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
- It is recognized across Europe with essentially no change of spelling.
- It has been in continuous use for as long as records exist anywhere.
- Jules sits inside it as a short form with a completely different register.
- It is common enough that a child may not be the only one nearby.
- No meaning can be given, because the Roman root has none that survives.
- The record holds a few boys as well, and the boy is much the smaller side.
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Julia
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Julias are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Julia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Julia in 2025?
- Julia is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Julia with classmates?
- Julia will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More J names
The most-given names starting with J, all years combined.
James#6 · John#23 · Joseph#29 · Joshua#66 · Jason#165 · Jacob#43 · Jeffrey#552 · Jonathan#89
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Julia? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Julia and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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