Julienne
Feminine · “Latin Julius”
Julienne is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 2,687 girls against 32 boys since 1880.
To julienne something is to cut it into matchsticks, and nobody knows which Julien is being honored. The term appears in French cookbooks in the eighteenth century already fully formed, and the cook it presumably names has never been identified.
How old is the name Julienne?
Julienne first appears in US birth records in 1912 — 113 years ago. The typical Julienne alive today was born around 1978, making them about 47 years old. About 2,200 people named Julienne are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Julienne most popular?
Julienne peaked in 1960, reaching #1655 nationally. Today it ranks #10107, 8,452 places below that high. See the whole 1960 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Iulius to Julienne
The story of Julienne
Cooking is full of eponyms and most of them are shaky. Julienne, a soup of finely cut vegetables and then the cut itself, appears in French sources by the 1720s with no explanation; the madeleine is attributed to at least four different women; bechamel is named for a courtier who almost certainly did not invent it; the sandwich story about the Earl at the card table is repeated everywhere and rests on one contemporary sentence; praline honors a marshal's cook; chateaubriand a writer's. What these have in common is that a dish acquires a name and the story is supplied later, usually by someone with a book to sell. Julienne is unusual only in that no story was ever supplied at all, so the name has stayed in every professional kitchen in the world with its origin blank.
Meaningscholars disagree
Latin Julius, a Roman family name
Julienne is the French feminine of Julien, from the Roman family name Julius, whose own origin is unknown. The culinary term, meaning a fine matchstick cut and originally a soup made with such vegetables, is recorded from the eighteenth century and its connection to the personal name is assumed rather than documented. The American peak is 1960.
How the name formed
- Iulius
- Julien
- Julienne
Related forms: Julienne · Julianne · Juliana
Pronouncing Julienne
joo-lee-EN
Three syllables, stress on the last, following the French. Americans often say JOO-lee-en, moving the stress forward.
Nicknames for Julienne
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
- 1912
- Most girls named
- 196046 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1655reached in 1960
- Change vs 2023
- −57.1%9 in 2025, from 21
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.
Julienne in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Julienne in French — same name
- Julianne in English — related form
- Juliana in Spanish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California.
Juliennes among us
people named Julienne are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 178,585 born in 2025 was named Julienne
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Izella test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Julienne's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Izella climbed just as high around 1911, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Izella's path sketches the road Julienne is walking now.
Julienne sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Julienne beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Julienne in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Julie and Jules are two established short forms.
- The name is current in French and readable in English.
- Three syllables with a firm ending.
- The culinary term is the first association for many.
- Julianne is the more common American spelling.
- English and French stress it differently.
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What they receive
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Julienne
Feminine · #10107 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Juliennes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,200 people named Julienne are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Julienne in 2025?
- Julienne ranks #10107 among US girl names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Julienne?
- About 1 in every 178,585 US girls born in 2025 was named Julienne — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Julienne with classmates?
- Julienne will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Julienne
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Berta#10107 · Jettie#10107 · Maye#10107 · Osa#10107 · Fidelia#10107 · Alysa#10107 · Su#10107 · Willie#10107
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Julienne? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Julienne and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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