Julius
Masculine · Latin roots · “Roman family name”
Julius is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 84,628 boys against 410 girls since 1880.
Julius is the Roman family name that gave us the month of July and the Julian calendar — a name still spelled almost exactly as it was on Latin inscriptions two thousand years ago. It has three unhurried syllables, all of them easy to say, and it keeps its shape in German, Danish and Finnish while turning into Giulio, Julio and Jules a little further west.
How old is the name Julius?
Julius was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Julius alive today was born around 1957, making them about 68 years old. About 47,000 people named Julius are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Julius most popular?
Julius peaked in 1883, reaching #88 nationally. Today it ranks #424, 336 places below that high. See the whole 1883 chart.
Where it comes from
From Iulius (Latin) to Julius
The story of Julius
Iulius was the name of one of Rome's patrician clans, the gens Julia, whose most famous member reshaped the Roman state in the first century BC and left his name on the calendar and on the month of July. As a clan name it passed to thousands of Roman citizens, then survived the empire's collapse through Christian bearers — Pope Julius I in the fourth century, and later Julius II, the pope who commissioned the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Renaissance humanism gave it a second life, and it settled permanently into German, Scandinavian and Central European use, where it remains ordinary rather than antique. English-speaking families brought it across the Atlantic in the nineteenth century, often alongside German and Central European immigration.
Meaningscholars disagree
Roman family name, traditionally linked either to Jupiter or to Greek ioulos, 'downy-bearded, youthful'
Two readings compete. One connects Iulius to Jove/Jupiter, by way of Iulus, the ancestor from whom the Roman gens Julia claimed descent. The other derives it from Greek ioulos, meaning down or the first soft beard, hence 'youthful'. The name is old enough that its origin was already obscure to Romans themselves, and neither reading has won.
How the name formed
- IuliusLatin
- Julius
- Iulianus / Julian
- Julia
- Jules
Related forms: Giulio · Julio · Jules · Julius · Juliusz · Yuliy
Pronouncing Julius
JOO-lee-us
Three syllables, stress on the first. In German, Danish and Finnish it is closer to YOO-lee-oos, which is worth knowing if the family has ties to those languages.
Nicknames for Julius
High
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 19181,416 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #88reached in 1883
- Change vs 2022
- −19.5%759 in 2025, from 943
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.
Julius in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Giulio in Italian — same name
- Julio in Spanish — same name
- Jules in French — same name
- Julius in German — same name
- Juliusz in Polish — same name
- Yuliy in Russian — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Juliuss among us
people named Julius are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 2,250 born in 2025 was named Julius
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Julius 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 Julius is headed
Julius 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.
Julius beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Julius in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the same way for two thousand years, and readable on sight to anyone literate in English — no correcting, no alternate spellings competing for attention.
- Travels without translation: Julius in German, Danish and Finnish, Julio, Giulio and Jules just next door.
- Has an established short form, Jules, plus the simple Jay — so there is a casual option without inventing one.
- Long, formal, and unmistakably a full name on a document, which pairs easily with short surnames.
- Distinctive in American classrooms today while remaining strongly represented among older generations, so it is familiar to adults rather than novel.
- Julius Caesar is unavoidable. Most American students meet the Shakespeare play in high school, which means a few Ides-of-March jokes and possibly a lifetime of 'Hail, Caesar.' Mild, but constant.
- Its American history is weighted toward older generations, so some relatives may hear it as a name from their grandfathers' era rather than a current one.
- Expect Julian and Julio to be offered as corrections, since all three are close in sound and far more common in some regions.
- Jules, the natural nickname, is now used for girls as often as boys in English — fine to know in advance rather than discover later.
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Julius
Masculine · Latin roots · #424 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Juliuss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 47,000 people named Julius are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Julius in 2025?
- Julius ranks #424 among US boy names in 2025, with 759 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Julius?
- About 1 in every 2,250 US boys born in 2025 was named Julius — 759 in all.
- Will my child share the name Julius with classmates?
- Julius will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Julius
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lucca#425 · Boone#423 · Solomon#422 · Isaias#426 · Tadeo#427 · Jaden#421 · Lian#428 · Francis#420
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Julius? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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