Jolie
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Meaning
“'pretty', from the French adjective”
The story
Jolie is the feminine French adjective for pretty, yet it is not a traditional French given name in the ordinary sense. English and Dutch speakers turned the sound into a modern personal name. Angelina Jolie made it globally familiar by using her middle name as her public surname. Her later work gave that surname a story beyond film: more than twenty years with the United Nations refugee agency, field missions in displaced communities, and advocacy concerning refugees and conflict. Those actions belong to one bearer, not to the adjective and certainly not to every child called Jolie. The distinction matters because a name meaning pretty can invite shallow expectations. A life is always larger than a compliment about appearance. Jolie's linguistic route is bright and compact, while the humanitarian association points outward toward attention, travel, and responsibility. The name can keep its beauty without asking beauty to be the most interesting thing about the person who carries it.
How popular is Jolie around the world?
In the United States, 1,968 babies were named Jolie between 2020 and 2025.
Jolie is on the official records of the United States, Scotland, Canada, England and Wales, Austria, Mexico City, Brazil and Spain.
United States
1 in 11,000
In the United States, 1,968 babies were named Jolie between 2020 and 2025.
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Jolie peaked in the 2000s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure. In US birth records Jolie has stayed between 339 and 4,324 births in every decade since the 1950s: a name everyone knows and few children get.
Births with a Social Security record. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration
Scotland
1 in 15,000
In Scotland, 3 girls named Jolie were registered in 2024, the 790th most common name among girls that year.
The count never rose above 6 in a year, too few to chart.
Births registered in Scotland; different spellings count separately but accents are merged at source, and any spelling under 3 in total is suppressed. Source: National Records of Scotland, babies' first names
Canada
1 in 26,000
In Canada, 14 girls named Jolie were born in 2024, ranked 1,615th among girls that year.
share of that year’s name registrations
First given names from provincial and territorial vital statistics across Canada; any name-sex-year under 5 is excluded at source, and small Quebec counts carry a randomized adjustment made at source. Shares divide by Statistics Canada’s count of live births for the year; the 2024 count is preliminary. Source: Statistics Canada, first names at birth (table 17-10-0147-01)
England and Wales
1 in 29,000
In England and Wales, 20 girls named Jolie were born in 2025, ranked 1,512th among girls that year.
share of that year’s name registrations
Birth registrations in England and Wales (not the whole UK); exact spellings are counted separately, and any spelling under 3 in a year is withheld at source. Source: Office for National Statistics, baby names in England and Wales
Austria
1 in 38,000
In Austria, 2 girls named Jolie were born in 2025, ranked 1,305th among girls that year, spellings that differ only by special characters counted together.
The count never rose above 8 in a year, too few to chart.
Live births in Austria by year of birth, 1984–2025, from Statistik Austria’s first-name statistics; spellings that differ only by special characters are counted together (umlauts stay apart), every name down to a single birth is published, and the count covers babies with Austrian citizenship only until 2009, every baby from 2010, and from 2015 also births abroad to mothers living in Austria. Shares divide by Statistik Austria’s count of live births from 2010, and before that by the file’s own total for the year. Source: Statistik Austria - data.statistik.gv.at (OGDEXT_VORNAMEN_1, updated 2026-07-09)
Mexico City City
1 in 59,000
In Mexico City, there were 2 registrations of Jolie in 2022.
share of that year’s registrations in the city
Civil-registry acts in Mexico City by registration year. Counts are lower bounds (names under 6 in a month and borough are removed at source) and count name-instances, not people; compound names are split, so “Maria Jose” counts under each part. 2023, a partial extract through 3 Mar with no cell on record for this name, is excluded. Source: Registro Civil of Mexico City, open data portal, registered given names 2000-2023
Brazil
1 in 500,000
At the 2022 census, 421 people in Brazil were named Jolie, ranked 15,051st, with a median age of 6.
Among people named Jolie living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 2010s than in any other decade.
people alive at the 2022 census, by decade of birth
The census also counted 153 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart. People alive and resident in Brazil at the 2022 census, a living-population count, not births; names under 20 are withheld at source. Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
Spain
1 in 1.8M
In Spain, 25 residents are named Jolie, ranked 25,812th among women, with a mean age of 18.7 years.
Residents of Spain on 1 January 2025. Spain publishes how old a name’s living bearers are, not a birth series, so there is no year chart. Source: INE (Spain), Censo de Población anual, 1 January 2025
Argentina
last on record 2019
Jolie is not on the 2024 record for Argentina, where small counts are withheld at source.
The count never rose above 2 in a year, too few to chart.
Given-name components of births in Argentina 2012–2024; national cells are lower bounds and no sex split is published. Source: RENAPER (Argentina), Dirección Nacional de Población, given names 2012-2024
Ireland
last on record 2006
Jolie is not on the 2025 record for Ireland, where names under 3 in a year are withheld at source.
The count never rose above 6 in a year, too few to chart.
Exact registered spellings from Irish vital statistics; any name under 3 in a year is withheld at source, and accented spellings (fadas) are recorded reliably only from 2018. Source: Central Statistics Office (Ireland), Irish babies' names
South Australia
last on record 2015
Jolie is not on the 2017 record for South Australia, whose registry publishes every name given that year.
The count never rose above 4 in a year, too few to chart.
Births registered in South Australia (not all of Australia) by first name and year of registration, 1944–2017, from the state’s Births, Deaths and Marriages registry, which publishes every name down to a single birth in capitals; a spelling its export repeats inside a year is counted once, and from 2018 only a top 100 is published, so the series ends at 2017. Source: Consumer and Business Services (South Australia), popular baby names
Not on the record in Puerto Rico, New Zealand and Poland: those registries withhold small counts, so rare uses may sit below their floors.
Not on the Chile record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 5 registrations in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on the Montevideo record for 1940 to 2011: that registry withholds nothing, so this spelling was not given there in those years. Not on the France record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 20 births in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on Norway’s list: Statistics Norway lists only first names carried by 200 or more living people, so rarer names are not shown.
When you meet Jolie
Most people given the name Jolie in the United States are teenagers or young adults today.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
Keep exploring
The Jolie deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Jolie truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Jolie fits with your family’s names and surname.
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