June (given name)

June

Gender Common Female
Origin
Word/name Latin
Look up June in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

June is a female given name, but it is also used as a male given name in English-speaking countries. It comes from the name of the month, which is derived from Juno, the name of a Roman goddess.[1] It is also a short form of the names Juniper, Junia, Junius and Junior.

June was a very popular girls name and somewhat popular boys name in the early to mid 20th century. As a girls name it reached a peak in 1925 as the 39th most popular girls name, but then gradually declined until it dropped off the top 1000 list of names in 1986. As a boys name, June reached a peak 1922 as 697th most popular boys, but then also declined and left the top 1000 list in 1939.

Junius was a popular boys name in the early 19th century, reaching a peak in 1908 as the 391st most popular boys name and leaving the 1000 list in 1950. Variant name Junious reached a peak in 1911 as the 744th most popular name and left the top 1000 list in 1923.

Junior remains a popular boys name, but reached a peak in 1925 as 117th most popular boys name.

Juniper has historically been used as both a boys and girls name. In the early part of the 20th century it was often seen as a boys name, likely due to Saint Juniper, but currently the name is more popular as a girls name. Juniper has never been on the top 1000 list, but is an increasingly popular name likely due to the popularity of a wide assortment of well known fictional works, including the cartoon series "The Life and Times of Juniper Lee", the movie "Benny and Joon" (where the Joon character was short for Juniper), and the novel "Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary".

Well known persons named June include:

Fictional characters

References

  1. MFnames.com - Origin and Meaning of June

See also

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