One day, out of curiosity, I searched for my name on Google. Expecting to see something nice about it, I was
surprised that someone said “Julie”
is an outdated name. Indeed, I often discovered that I shared my name with accomplished seniors who
authored books or delivered successful speeches. This familiarity usually stemmed from encountering their
names in such contexts.
So, as a 22-year-old girl, I wondered, “Is 'Julie' really an old name that is not popular among people of my
generation?” However, based on my findings, it may really be… Nowadays, “Julia,” “Juliette,” or even
“Julianna” seem to be more popular than “Julie,” although they can be variations of each other.
What was the origin of “Julie”?
Julie is a popular Latin first name derived from Julia, which is derived from Julius. It's believed to either
come from the Greek word ιουλος (ioulos), meaning 'downy-haired,' or the Latin word Jovilius,
meaning
'devoted to Jove'. The name is also commonly associated with “youthful” and childlike innocence.
The first appearance of Julie was in a popular non-French literary work, Swedish playwright August
Strindberg's tragedy Miss Julie, in 1888. The play became one of the most widely performed in the
English-speaking world, and Julie as a name expanded along with it.
When “Julie” was a popular baby girl name??
Julie has been one of the most popular female names used in the United States. According to the United
StatesSocial Security
Administration, Julie was consistently in the top one-hundred registered female names in the forty
years between 1951 and 1991, and it peaked at #10 in 1971 (around when my mother was born!).
“Julie” was really popular in the 60s and 70s but then faded away.
It ranked among the top 18 popular names in the 60s and 70s, but later
declined in popularity,
eventually dropping out of the top 200 female names in the 2000s.
Before the 1950s, Julie was not that popular. But starting from the 1950s, the name's popularity
increased from 43 to 18 during the 1960s and 70s. In the 1980s, fewer parents opted to name their
daughters "Julie," causing the number of babies given that name to decline to #51. By the 1990s, it
dropped even further to #125, and was finally out of the list of top 200 popular names in the 2000s,
the
time I was born (ah-oh…).
Julie Hartenstein, a Narrative Medicine
Degree
Candidate at Columbia University, who also attend the
journalism school here before and worked for ABC News for 18 years, said she has always liked her name
(and
not everyone can say that about their name!).
“I am in the 60s. And I think Julie seems a bit retro at this point… Only one friend of mine named her
child
Julie and her Julie is now almost 30... so that was also a long time ago,” said Hartenstein. “I don't
think
I would have considered Julie as a name for my daughter, but it is still a name I like.”
What were the popular names when I was born in the 2000s?
Emily was the most popular female name when I was born in the
2000s.
As I was born in 2001, around the 2000s, people loved to name their daughter “Emily” and their
son
“Jacob.” Data shows that there were 223,734 Emilys and 273,992 Jacobs at that time. Other
popular
names in the country included Madison, Emma, Olivia, and Hannah for girls, and Michael, Joshua,
Matthew, and Daniel for boys. The names, “Jessica” and “Jennifer,” which had peaked in
popularity
for roughly 25 years, saw a shift and weren’t regarded as cool by parents in the 2000s. Names
like
“Madison” and “Isabella” became their new favorites.
There were 303k Jessicas and 462k Michaels in the 1990s in the U.S.
What about 10 years before I was born? Were there also some trendy names? Are they different from
the
popular names in my days? Yes. As I mentioned, “Jessica” was leading the ranking with 303,118
girls
named it in the 1990s in the U.S. There were also hundreds of thousands of Ashley, Emily, Sarah,
and
Samantha. Michael was the top 1 name favored by American parents for their boys, with 462,390
babies
given that time. Like popular names in the 2000s, Christopher, Matthew, Joshua, and Jacob also
led
the list in the 1990s.
Regardless of the decade, names are undoubtedly important. They hold profound personal, cultural,
familial, and historical connections. They also represent who we are, what communities we belong to,
and
even our place in the world. So no matter whether your name is mainstream or unique, I hope you like
it!