Julio
Masculine · “from the Roman family name Julius”
Julio is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 63,775 boys against 422 girls since 1880.
Julio is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the Roman family name Julius, worn smooth by centuries of speech into three easy syllables. It is also, in Spanish, the plain word for the month of July — a name and a page of the calendar sharing a root in the same ancient Roman clan. Long-established in the United States, and strongest in Texas, California and Florida.
How old is the name Julio?
Julio first appears in US birth records in 1888 — 137 years ago. The typical Julio alive today was born around 1992, making them about 33 years old. About 57,000 people named Julio are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Julio most popular?
Julio peaked in 1990, reaching #194 nationally. Today it ranks #641, 447 places below that high. See the whole 1990 chart.
Julio appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Iulius to Julio
The story of Julio
The name begins with the gens Iulia, one of the old patrician families of Rome, whose most famous member gave his name to the month of July — julio in Spanish. Latin Iulius passed into the Romance languages, and where Italian kept Giulio and French clipped it to Jules, Spanish and Portuguese arrived at Julio and Júlio. From Spain it traveled across the Atlantic and became thoroughly at home in Latin America, and from there into the United States, where it has been on the records since the nineteenth century. The Roman spine of the name is still visible in the spelling: change one letter and you are back in Latin.
Meaningscholars disagree
from the Roman family name Julius; meaning debated
Two serious readings compete for Julius. The Roman Julii themselves traced their name to Iulus, the son of Aeneas in Roman legend. Scholars have also connected it to the Greek ioulos, 'downy-bearded', hence youthful. Neither has won, and the name carries both.
How the name formed
- Iulius
- Julius
- Julio
Related forms: Iulius · Giulio · Jules · Júlio · Julius · Juli
Pronouncing Julio
HOO-lee-oh
In Spanish the J is a breathy H and the stress falls on the first syllable. English speakers who do not know the name often try JOO-lee-oh; both are heard in the United States, and families usually settle it early by saying it once, clearly.
Nicknames for Julio
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
- 1888
- Most boys named
- 19901,556 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #194reached in 1990
- Change vs 2022
- −19.0%436 in 2025, from 538
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.
Julio in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Iulius in Latin — same name
- Giulio in Italian — same name
- Jules in French — related form
- Júlio in Portuguese — spelling variant
- Julius in English — same name
- Juli in Catalan — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Julios among us
people named Julio are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 3,918 born in 2025 was named Julio
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 Tommie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Julio's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Tommie climbed just as high around 1909, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Tommie's path sketches the road Julio is walking now.
Julio 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
Where Julio is headed
Julio should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Julio beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Julio in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled exactly as it sounds in Spanish, with no variant spellings competing for it.
- A documented line back to Latin, and close cousins in Italian, French, Portuguese and English — recognizable across most of the Western world.
- Familiar to nearly everyone without being crowded: a boy named Julio is unlikely to share it with a classmate.
- Comes with a ready-made family diminutive in Julito, and a longer formal cousin in Julius.
- The J will be pronounced two ways depending on who is reading it. Outside Spanish-speaking settings, expect JOO-lee-oh from strangers and a lifetime of gentle corrections — manageable, but worth knowing in advance.
- In Spanish, julio is also the month of July, so the name is a common word as well as a name. Spanish speakers hear both at once and think nothing of it.
- It sits close to Julián, Julio César and Julius, and mix-ups among them are routine on forms and rosters.
- Its use is stepping back from its high point, so it now reads as a well-established name rather than a current favorite — plenty of adults carry it, fewer small children do.
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What they receive
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Julio
Masculine · #641 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Julios are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 57,000 people named Julio are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Julio in 2025?
- Julio ranks #641 among US boy names in 2025, with 436 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Julio?
- About 1 in every 3,918 US boys born in 2025 was named Julio — 436 in all.
- Will my child share the name Julio with classmates?
- Julio will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Julio
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Amias#642 · Kasai#639 · Samir#643 · Memphis#639 · Lochlan#644 · Azael#645 · Leonard#637 · Ronald#637
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Julio? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Julio and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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