Julio
- Pronunciation
- [Hu-li-o]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Youth
- Origin
- Spanish
About the Name Julio
Julio is the Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian form of Julius (see separate entry on Julius for the Latin Iulius etymology — the Roman family name famously associated with Julius Caesar). The Latinate Julio has been used continuously across Spanish-speaking and Italian-Catholic naming traditions for over a millennium.
Notable bearers include the iconic Spanish-American singer Julio Iglesias (born 1943, the iconic Spanish singer-songwriter whose career through the 1970s through the 2010s made him one of the bestselling music artists in Spanish-language history with over 300 million records sold); American basketball player Julio Jones (using Jones as a surname, born 1989, the iconic American NFL wide receiver); the iconic Argentine writer Julio Cortázar (1914–1984, the iconic Argentine novelist of Hopscotch 1963 — widely considered one of the greatest figures of 20th-century Latin American literature); and the contemporary Brazilian filmmaker Julio Bressane.
Julio has been continuously used in Spanish-speaking American communities for over a century. The name held a US top-300 boys' rank from 1965 through 2010, driven primarily by Spanish-language naming influence. The name's appeal is its layered Latin-Roman-Spanish-Catholic pedigree combined with three flowing syllables — the in-built Julius Caesar Roman-historical register, the strong Julio Iglesias contemporary cultural anchor, and tonal warmth distinctive to Spanish-language naming. Three flowing syllables, soft consonants, and the name reads as both classical-Latin and contemporary American. Common nicknames Julian (alternate, a popular standalone name), Jules (the dominant warm short form, gender-neutral and casual), Julito (Spanish-American), and the rare Yulo each carry distinct registers; international forms include Julius (English/German), Julio (essentially identical across Spanish/Portuguese/Italian), Jules (French), Giulio (Italian alternate), and the original Latin Iulius.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Julio
US Popularity History (2000–2025)
Annual US births named Julio by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2005 with 1,517 boys named Julio (boy rank #227 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #641 for boys (436 US births). That's 414 places below its 2005 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Julio Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Julio the strongest states are Texas, Arizona, California.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas | #308 | 1,123 |
| 2 | Arizona | #317 | 228 |
| 3 | California | #350 | 1,022 |
| 4 | New Mexico | #357 | 29 |
| 5 | Nevada | #444 | 64 |
| 6 | Connecticut | #444 | 19 |
| 7 | Kansas | #509 | 27 |
| 8 | Florida | #510 | 301 |
| 9 | Oregon | #547 | 40 |
| 10 | Washington | #581 | 97 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Indiana | #872 | 52 |
| 2 | Louisiana | #809 | 23 |
| 3 | Georgia | #777 | 115 |
| 4 | Pennsylvania | #763 | 52 |
| 5 | Wisconsin | #730 | 24 |
| 6 | New York | #712 | 185 |
| 7 | Alabama | #706 | 43 |
| 8 | South Carolina | #706 | 17 |
| 9 | Virginia | #678 | 92 |
| 10 | North Carolina | #670 | 121 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Julio in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Famous People Named Julio
2 notable figures from history and culture who share the name Julio.
- Julio Cesar Chavez — Boxer (1962)
- Julio Cortazar was one of the most significant Argentinian writers of all time. Check out
Looking for names like Julio?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Julio to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Julio against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).