Julia

I never knew that one name could have so many languages and variants. It’s amazing how all these languages just have this one shared name.

Unlike many masculine/feminine counterparts, both Julia and Julius have deep roots, dating back to the time of the Romans. They come from the name given to all members of the Julii family - a very old and patrician family that claimed descent from Venus, the Roman goddess of love. Men were given the name ("nomen" in Latin, a Roman man's primary name, and a Roman woman's only name) Julius, and women the name Julia (pronounced ee-YOO-lee-us/uh, with the ee-YOO being kind of mashed together). The most famous member of the Julii family was the Gaius Julius Caesar (known most commonly by only his nomen and cognomen -- Julius Caesar) of the late Roman Republic (the family had fallen on hard times by his birth) who conquered Gaul, became dictator of Rome after winning a Civil War, and was shortly after assassinated by conspirators of the Senate. Having no trueborn sons, in his will Caesar adopted his grand-nephew, Gaius Octavius, as his son and heir. Octavius took on the murdered Caesar's name, becoming Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (from this we derive "Octavian", which is how he is known to history for this period in his life). He went on to avenge his father's death, win another civil war against his father's right-hand man Mark Antony (Marcus Antoninus) and Ptolemaic Egyptian queen Cleopatra (lover of both Mark Antony and Caesar -- she presented her baseborn son by Caesar, Caesarion, as a competitor to Octavian's claim as Caesar's heir), and crown himself as Emperor (taking the name "Augustus" with his ascension, which is how he is known to history for the period covering his reign). Thus, the Roman Republic became the Roman Empire, and all future emperors took the name "Gaius Julius Caesar" as well, even after the initial dynasty of Octavian's family (known as the "Julio-Claudian dynasty") died out. Because of all this, the legacy of the Julii carried on long after the last full-blooded member of the Julii family died, allowing "Julia" to flourish as a popular girl's name all the way to the current year. Julia was also Augustus' daughter's name, signifying the importance the Julii name had for the emperors, not just being a throwaway title (the story of this Julia and her father is a sad, sad tale, by the way, but too long to cover here).

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Also worth mentioning that Roman women kept their name upon marrying, so any Julia who married into a different family would remain "Julia", though her children would derive their name from their father. For example, Octavian's grandmother (on his mother's side) and Caesar's sister was Julia (known as Julia Minor, her older sister being Julia Major -- this is the typical way to distinguish between Roman sisters) even after she married into the Atii family (Octavian's mother, Caesar's niece, was Atia).

A Julia is a well known fractal pattern as well known to show up in crop circles. Pretty cool.

Julia means youth or young. I was named after my great grandmother and it's been in our family forever. As in I'm a living descendant of Julia the great. My middle name is Victoria so young victory has been a great name for me.

The meaning is "youth" or young. Thus the fuzzy beard allegation. A Julia is a fractal pattern known for being repeated in crop circles too! My name is Julia and I HATE being called Julie or Juliette. The name is hard to tease so I like that, but got the nickname Bad-Juju or Java. My name was inherited from my great grandmother so it is an old sounding name with victorian images attached to it. In Hawaiian it becomes Kulia which means "I stand" as in stand firm like a rock.

Julia originally comes from Latin meaning 'YOUTHFUL'.