Julia
A feminine name of Latin origin meaning "youthful" or "downy-bearded".
Name Census estimates that about 298,017 living Americans carry the first name Julia. It sits at #116 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Julia today is around 37 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Julia births was 2001 (8,849 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Julia. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Julia with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Julia is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 1,744 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
298K
~ 1 in 1,150 Americans
Peak year
2001
8,849 babies that year
Average age
37
years old
2020 SSA rank
#116
Tracked since 1880
Census
Julia in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 349,784 people with the first name Julia, which placed it at #142 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#142
National first-name rank
People counted
350K
349,784 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
115.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
69.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Julia
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Julia is White at 69.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (18.5%) and Black (5.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Julia described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Julia at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White69.0% · 241,359
- Hispanic or Latino18.5% · 64,784
- Black or African American5.1% · 17,856
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.7% · 12,805
- Two or more races3.2% · 11,067
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 1,913
Gender
Gender distribution for Julia
Out of the 475,798 babies given the name Julia since 1880, 99.6% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Julia as a male name
- Ranked #11,258 in 2020
- 6 male births in 2020
- Peak: 1989 (57 births)
Julia as a female name
- Ranked #116 in 2024
- 2,359 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2001 (8,838 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Julia appears almost entirely female. Of the 349,781 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Julia: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Julia from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 70,991 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Julia by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Julia during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 38 | 9,800 | 9,838 |
| 1890s | 34 | 13,448 | 13,482 |
| 1900s | 45 | 16,107 | 16,152 |
| 1910s | 146 | 39,259 | 39,405 |
| 1920s | 207 | 40,331 | 40,538 |
| 1930s | 194 | 24,937 | 25,131 |
| 1940s | 126 | 27,890 | 28,016 |
| 1950s | 118 | 32,456 | 32,574 |
| 1960s | 134 | 34,181 | 34,315 |
| 1970s | 123 | 23,419 | 23,542 |
| 1980s | 271 | 33,355 | 33,626 |
| 1990s | 159 | 59,951 | 60,110 |
| 2000s | 114 | 70,877 | 70,991 |
| 2010s | 29 | 35,903 | 35,932 |
| 2020s | 6 | 12,140 | 12,146 |
Geography
Where Julias live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, New York, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Julia, while Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 8,512 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Julia
The name Julia is a feminine form of the ancient Roman family name Julius. It originated from the Latin word "ioulos" which means "downy-bearded" or "youthful". The name has its roots in the Roman era, tracing back to the 1st century BC.
Julia was a popular name among Roman aristocratic families, particularly the gens Julia, one of the most influential patrician families in ancient Rome. The gens Julia produced several notable historical figures, including the Roman dictator Gaius Julius Caesar.
In ancient Roman literature, the name Julia appears in various texts, including the works of Ovid and Virgil. It was also mentioned in historical records and inscriptions from the Roman era.
One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name Julia was Julia, the daughter of the Roman Emperor Augustus and his second wife Scribonia. She lived from 39 BC to 14 AD and was a prominent figure in Roman politics and society.
Throughout history, several notable women have borne the name Julia. These include Julia Soaemias (c. 180 - 222 AD), the mother of the Roman Emperor Elagabalus, and Julia Domna (c. 170 - 217 AD), the wife of the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus.
In the medieval period, Julia was a relatively uncommon name in Europe, but it gained popularity during the Renaissance. One notable bearer was Julia Gonzaga (1513 - 1566), an Italian noblewoman and patron of the arts.
Another famous Julia was Julia Margaret Cameron (1815 - 1879), a British photographer known for her striking portraits and her contributions to the art of photography.
In the 20th century, Julia Child (1912 - 2004), the renowned American chef and author, helped popularize the name in the United States with her groundbreaking television show and cookbooks.
Other notable Julias include Julia Roberts (born 1967), the Academy Award-winning American actress, and Julia Gillard (born 1961), the former Prime Minister of Australia.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Julia
People
Julia + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Julia as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with J
Other first names starting with J with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Julia: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Julia?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 298,017 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Julia going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,150 US residents.
Is Julia a common name?
We classify Julia as "Common". It ranks above 99.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 475,798 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Julia most popular?
The single biggest year for Julia was 2001, when 8,849 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Julia is about 37 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Julia in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 349,784 people with the name Julia, or 115.81 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #142 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Julia in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Julia?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Julia appears almost entirely female. Of the 349,781 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Julia?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Julia is White at 69.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (18.5%) and Black (5.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Julia most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Julia in the 2020 Census, accounting for 69.0% (241,359 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Julia in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Julia a female name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Julia in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Julia still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Julia in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Julia can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many Americans are named Julia?
See how many Americans are named Julia on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.