Justice
An English virtue name derived from Latin meaning "righteousness" or "fairness".
Name Census estimates that about 37,400 living Americans carry the first name Justice. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 51.4% of registrations being male. The average person named Justice today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Justice births was 1996 (1,689 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Justice. 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 Justice with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Justice sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
People living today
37K
~ 1 in 9,165 Americans
Peak year
1996
1,689 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,079
Tracked since 1880
Census
Justice in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 28,885 people with the first name Justice, which placed it at #1,282 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
#1,282
National first-name rank
People counted
29K
28,885 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
9.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
38.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Justice
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Justice is Black at 38.3%. The next largest groups are White (35.2%) and Hispanic (12.3%). 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 Justice 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 Justice at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American38.3% · 11,060
- White35.2% · 10,174
- Hispanic or Latino12.3% · 3,563
- Two or more races10.9% · 3,139
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.7% · 494
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.6% · 455
Gender
Gender distribution for Justice
Justice is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 38,299 total registrations, 19,702 (51.4%) were male and 18,597 (48.6%) were female.
Justice as a male name
- Ranked #1,079 in 2024
- 201 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2002 (832 births)
Justice as a female name
- Ranked #1,164 in 2024
- 206 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1995 (1,046 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Justice on both sides of the split. Of the 28,889 people counted with this name, 15,389 were male (53.3%) and 13,500 were female (46.7%).
Popularity
Justice: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Justice from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 12,747 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
Justice 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 Justice during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Justices live
The SSA's state-level files cover 49 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Justice, while Wyoming, Maine, Rhode Island recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 709 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Justice
The given name Justice originated as an English virtue name derived from the Latin word "iustitia", meaning righteousness, equity, or moral rectitude. It emerged in the late 16th century during the Protestant Reformation, reflecting the growing emphasis on moral virtues and their personification.
While not as prevalent as some traditional names, Justice has been documented throughout history, often associated with individuals who exemplified a sense of fairness, equality, and adherence to ethical principles. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in the works of English poet and playwright Ben Jonson (1572-1637), who used the name Justice for a character in his satirical play "The Devil is an Ass" (1616).
Justice has been particularly popular among those involved in the legal profession or advocating for social justice causes. Notable historical figures with the name include Justice Joseph Story (1779-1845), an American lawyer and jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and Justice Milward (1888-1952), an English barrister and judge who presided over several high-profile trials.
During the 20th century, the name gained further prominence with individuals like Justice Bynum (1901-1975), an African American journalist and civil rights activist who worked tirelessly to promote racial equality and social justice in the United States. Another notable figure was Justice Putnam (1925-2005), an American botanist and environmentalist who played a crucial role in establishing the field of conservation biology.
The name has also been adopted by artists and cultural figures, such as Justice Trillby (1811-1893), an English artist known for his portraits and genre paintings, and Justice Whitelam (1918-1998), an Australian author and journalist who wrote extensively about Indigenous Australian culture and history.
Throughout its history, the name Justice has carried a strong symbolic meaning, representing the ideals of fairness, righteousness, and the pursuit of justice in various aspects of society, from the legal system to social movements and beyond.
People
Justice + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Justice 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
Justice: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Justice?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 37,400 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Justice 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 9,165 US residents.
Is Justice a common name?
We classify Justice as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 38,299 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Justice most popular?
The single biggest year for Justice was 1996, when 1,689 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Justice is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Justice in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 28,885 people with the name Justice, or 9.56 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,282 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 Justice 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 Justice?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Justice on both sides of the split. Of the 28,889 people counted with this name, 15,389 were male (53.3%) and 13,500 were female (46.7%). 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 Justice?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Justice is Black at 38.3%. The next largest groups are White (35.2%) and Hispanic (12.3%). 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 Justice most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Justice in the 2020 Census, accounting for 38.3% (11,060 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 Justice in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Justice a male name?
Yes, 51.4% of people registered as Justice in the SSA data are male. 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 Justice still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Justice 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 Justice 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 people have Justice as a first name?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Justice, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.