Juliet
A feminine name of French origin meaning "youthful".
Name Census estimates that about 32,639 living Americans carry the first name Juliet. It sits at #283 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Juliet today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Juliet births was 2016 (1,402 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Juliet. 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 Juliet with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
33K
~ 1 in 10,501 Americans
Peak year
2016
1,402 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2016 SSA rank
#283
Tracked since 1880
Census
Juliet in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 32,998 people with the first name Juliet, which placed it at #1,190 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
#1,190
National first-name rank
People counted
33K
32,998 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
10.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
50.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Juliet
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Juliet is White at 50.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (23.1%) and Black (11.8%). 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 Juliet 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 Juliet at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White50.9% · 16,803
- Hispanic or Latino23.1% · 7,611
- Black or African American11.8% · 3,885
- Asian and Pacific Islander9.5% · 3,133
- Two or more races4.3% · 1,410
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 156
Gender
Gender distribution for Juliet
Out of the 36,826 babies given the name Juliet since 1880, 100.0% 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.
Juliet as a male name
- Ranked #13,178 in 2016
- 5 male births in 2016
- Peak: 2016 (5 births)
Juliet as a female name
- Ranked #283 in 2024
- 1,116 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2016 (1,397 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Juliet appears almost entirely female. Of the 32,998 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Juliet: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Juliet from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 13,007 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Juliet remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Juliet 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 Juliet during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Juliets live
The SSA's state-level files cover 49 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Juliet, while North Dakota, West Virginia, South Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 636 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Juliet
The name Juliet is derived from the French name Juliette, which ultimately traces its roots back to the Roman family name Julius. This name was derived from the ancient Roman word "ioulos," meaning "downy-bearded" or "youthful." The name gained widespread recognition through its association with the tragic heroine Juliet Capulet in William Shakespeare's famous play "Romeo and Juliet," written around 1595.
The name Juliet has a long and storied history, with its earliest recorded use dating back to the 13th century. One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Juliet of Norwich, an English mystic and author who lived from 1343 to 1416. Her work "Revelations of Divine Love" is considered one of the earliest examples of written English prose by a woman.
Another notable Juliet in history was Juliet Duff Claremont, also known as Lady Capulet, who lived from 1671 to 1726. She was an English aristocrat and noblewoman who served as a Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Anne.
In the literary world, Juliet Prowse (1936-1996) was a renowned dancer, actress, and singer who starred in various films and television shows in the 1960s and 1970s. She was also a successful recording artist and is remembered for her appearances on popular TV shows like "The Ed Sullivan Show."
Juliet Mills (born 1941) is a British actress and author who has had a prolific career spanning over six decades. She is best known for her roles in films such as "Avanti!" and "Nanny and the Professor," as well as her appearances in numerous television shows.
Juliet Stevenson (born 1956) is a highly acclaimed British actress who has received numerous awards and nominations for her work on stage, film, and television. She is particularly renowned for her performances in productions of plays by William Shakespeare and has been a prominent figure in the British theater scene for several decades.
While the name Juliet has its origins in ancient Rome and gained widespread recognition through Shakespeare's famous play, it has transcended its literary roots and has been embraced by many cultures around the world. Its enduring popularity is a testament to its timeless beauty and romantic connotations.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Juliet
People
Juliet + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Juliet 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
Juliet: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Juliet?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 32,639 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Juliet 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 10,501 US residents.
Is Juliet a common name?
We classify Juliet as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 36,826 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Juliet most popular?
The single biggest year for Juliet was 2016, when 1,402 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Juliet is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Juliet in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 32,998 people with the name Juliet, or 10.93 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,190 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 Juliet 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 Juliet?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Juliet appears almost entirely female. Of the 32,998 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Juliet?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Juliet is White at 50.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (23.1%) and Black (11.8%). 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 Juliet most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Juliet in the 2020 Census, accounting for 50.9% (16,803 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 Juliet in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Juliet a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Juliet 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 Juliet still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Juliet 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 Juliet 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 Juliet as a first name?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Juliet, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.