Justin
Masculine · “just”
Justin is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 790,469 boys against 3,804 girls since 1880. See Justin as a girl name
Justin is a Roman name that means what it looks like it means. It is the small form of Justus, the just man, and it has been carried by emperors, a philosopher and a great many ordinary people since the second century, which is unusually straightforward for a name this common.
How old is the name Justin?
Justin was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Justin alive today was born around 1990, making them about 35 years old. About 753,000 people named Justin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Justin most popular?
Justin peaked in 1988, reaching #7 nationally. Today it ranks #233, 226 places below that high. See the whole 1988 chart.
Where it comes from
From justus to Justin
The story of Justin
The name's first famous holder is Justin Martyr, a philosopher from Samaria who read his way through the Stoics and the Platonists, converted, and then went on wearing the philosopher's cloak for the rest of his life, on the grounds that he had not stopped being one. He argued for Christianity in the language of Greek philosophy rather than against it, and was executed in Rome for refusing to sacrifice. Two Byzantine emperors carried the name after him, and it spread across Europe as a saint's name. The curious thing is that the parent name it was built from, Justus, faded almost completely, while the diminutive it produced is still one of the most given names in the English-speaking world.
Meaning
just, fair, upright
From the Latin justus, with the ending that Latin used to make an affectionate or smaller form. The meaning has never been in doubt and has never drifted.
Cultural footprint
Justin Bieber (b. 1994) — YouTube discovery turned global pop superstar
Justin Timberlake (b. 1981) — NSYNC star turned solo hitmaker and actor
Justin Trudeau (b. 1971) — Prime minister of Canada for a decade
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- justus
- Justinus
- Justin
Related forms: Justin · Justino · Giustino · Ustin · Justyn
Pronouncing Justin
JUS-tin
Two syllables with the weight at the front. French says zhoos-TAN, back-weighted and nasal, and Spanish hoos-TEEN.
Nicknames for Justin
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 198731,491 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #7reached in 1988
- Change vs 2022
- −27.3%1,512 in 2025, from 2,079
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.
Justin in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Justin in French — same name
- Justino in Spanish — same name
- Giustino in Italian — same name
- Ustin in Russian — transliteration
- Justyn in Polish — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Justins among us
people named Justin are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 1,130 born in 2025 was named Justin
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 Donald test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Justin's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Donald climbed just as high around 1934, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Donald's path sketches the road Justin is walking now.
Justin is coming down from a big peak (#7 in 1988). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Justin is headed
Justin 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.
Justin beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Justin in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Everyone can spell it and say it on first hearing, in almost any European language.
- The meaning is plain, positive and needs no explaining.
- It has forms in French, Spanish, Italian, Polish and Russian, so it travels without becoming strange.
- It has an unbroken written history from the second century to the present.
- It is one of the defining names of its generation and will place a person in time for anyone who hears it.
- Several very famous men share it, and the associations arrive whether or not they are wanted.
- The spelling is recorded for a small number of girls, though it reads overwhelmingly as a boy's name.
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What they receive
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Justin
Masculine · #233 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Justins are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 753,000 people named Justin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Justin in 2025?
- Justin ranks #233 among US boy names in 2025, with 1,512 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Justin?
- About 1 in every 1,130 US boys born in 2025 was named Justin — 1,512 in all.
- Will my child share the name Justin with classmates?
- Justin will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Justin
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Richard#234 · Alex#232 · Patrick#235 · Abel#231 · Simon#230 · Brody#236 · Kaiden#237 · Brayden#229
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Justin? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Justin and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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