We should note that this name was first among the top 1000 in the USA between 1958 and 1975, before Angelina Jolie herself was born.The original impetus for using this as a name in the USA therefore was probably Jolie Gabor (1896-1997), the mother of the Gabor sisters. At birth she was named Jancsi or Janka, but she seems to have been using Jolie as her name in the 1930s in Hungary, when she owned a costume jewelry shop in Budapest called Jolie's. Though it is possible she adopted the name from the French word, perhaps she was also thinking of it as a pet form of Jolánka or Jolanda.
My daughter is named Jolie after her grandfather who was in failing health when her mom became pregnant. He always wanted a grandchild to be named after him and this was his last chance. His name was Joe Lee. We had never heard of this name before as a first name and couldn't care less about the actress. For us it was a modified version of Julie that represented her grandfather. He passed away when she was 18 months old.
This "name" is not used as a name in France, joli (male form) and jolie (female form) mean "beautiful" in French. They are words, not names. I think this word shouldn´t be used as a name, after all you don´t name your child Beautiful or Pretty. She would have problems if she´d ever go to France.
― Anonymous User 4/14/2005
-5
To whoever said that people don't name their children "beautiful"; I have a close fiend called Beauty. Her sister is called Chastity and her brother is called Honour, because they are virtues that their mother holds close to her.
The original impetus for using this as a name in the USA therefore was probably Jolie Gabor (1896-1997), the mother of the Gabor sisters. At birth she was named Jancsi or Janka, but she seems to have been using Jolie as her name in the 1930s in Hungary, when she owned a costume jewelry shop in Budapest called Jolie's. Though it is possible she adopted the name from the French word, perhaps she was also thinking of it as a pet form of Jolánka or Jolanda.