Justine
Meaning
just, righteous
Goes by Juju
The story
Justine is the French and Dutch feminine form of Justin, a name descended from the Latin Iustinus and iustus, just or fair. Early saints helped the family travel through Christian Europe, while French use gave Justine the form now familiar in English as well. Literature added sharply different portraits, from the virtuous heroine of the Marquis de Sade's Justine to the title character of Lawrence Durrell's twentieth-century novel. The American curve remains low through most of the record, rises in the 1960s and 1970s, and holds its strongest level from the 1980s through the 2000s before easing. That long middle plateau keeps it from feeling like a single-year fashion. Justine offers the clarity of the virtue word just without being a modern word name, and its final e marks the feminine form without changing the sturdy two-syllable sound.
Justine around the world
One shared root links 4 names across 3 languages.
Shared root: from Latin iustus "just", through the Roman names Justus and Justinus
The constellation
More branches
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Justine peaked in the 1980s and the 2000s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
301 people · the #18,999 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 1,000,000 · median age 18
Among people named Justine living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 2010s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 26 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Justine
People given the name Justine in the United States span the generations: the middle half were born anywhere from 1970 to 1999. Age is the one thing the name won't tell you.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Justine deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Justine 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 Justine fits with your family’s names and surname.
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