July
The feminine name is derived from the month of the year.
Name Census estimates that about 1,065 living Americans carry the first name July. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 75.9% of registrations being female. The average person named July today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of July births was 2020 (40 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for July. 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.
People living today
1.1K
~ 1 in 321,835 Americans
Peak year
2020
40 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,294
Tracked since 1962
Gender
Gender distribution for July
July is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,101 total registrations, 265 (24.1%) were male and 836 (75.9%) were female.
July as a male name
- Ranked #6,294 in 2024
- 14 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2019 (21 births)
July as a female name
- Ranked #6,482 in 2024
- 18 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2020 (28 births)
Popularity
July: popularity over time
The SSA tracks July from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 296 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, July remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
July 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 July during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Julys live
Origin
Meaning and history of July
The name July is derived from the ancient Roman word "Julius", which was originally a surname of the gens Julia, one of the most prominent patrician families in ancient Rome. The name is believed to have originated from the Latin word "ioulos", meaning "downy-bearded" or "youthful".
The name gained significant prominence during the reign of Gaius Julius Caesar, the famous Roman military leader and statesman who played a crucial role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. After his assassination in 44 BC, the month of Quintilis was renamed as July in his honor by the Roman Senate.
In ancient Roman texts, the name Julius appears frequently, particularly in reference to members of the gens Julia family. One of the earliest recorded examples of the name can be found in the writings of the Roman historian Suetonius, who mentioned a Julius Caesar who lived in the 1st century AD.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name July or its variants. One of the most famous was Gaius Julius Caesar (100 BC - 44 BC), the Roman dictator and military leader who played a pivotal role in the transition from the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire.
Another notable figure was Julius Africanus (c. 160 - c. 240 AD), a Christian historian and scholar from Roman Palestine who is known for his work "Chronographiai", a universal chronology of events from the creation of the world to his own time.
In the Middle Ages, Julius Firmicus Maternus (c. 300 - c. 350 AD) was a Roman pagan writer and astrologer who later converted to Christianity and wrote influential works on astrology and Christian apologetics.
During the Renaissance period, Julius Caesar Scaliger (1484 - 1558) was an Italian scholar and physician who made significant contributions to the study of ancient literature and chronology.
In more recent times, Julius Erving (born 1950) is a famous American basketball player who was nicknamed "Dr. J" and is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport.
People
July + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with July 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
July: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named July?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,065 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for July 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 321,835 US residents.
Is July a common name?
We classify July as "Rare". It ranks above 90.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,101 babies have been registered with this name.
When was July most popular?
The single biggest year for July was 2020, when 40 babies received the name. The fact that the average living July is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is July a female name?
Yes, 75.9% of people registered as July 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.
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.