Jules
About Jules
Though Jules hasn't been on the US popularity list in fifty years, it remains a hit in its native France where it's currently in the Top 10 — and has been in the Top 500 nearly every year since the French name records began in 1900. Also a favorite in Belgium and Quebec, it's just outside the Top 100 in The Netherlands.
A French form of Julius, meaning "youthful", "downy-bearded" or perhaps "sky father" via Jupiter, Jules could easily be a nickname for Julian too. As such, you may hear it pronounced ZHUYL in French and JOOLZ in English.
Moderately popular in the US in the early 20th-century, Jules has plenty of history, connected to author Verne, opera composer Massenet, painter Olitski, and cartoonist Feiffer, as well as appearing as a character in such iconic films as Pulp Fiction and St. Elmo's Fire and in Balzac's novel The Human Comedy and Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.
These days, Jules is also apt to be heard as a nickname for the feminine Julia or Julie, as in TV personality Jules Asner, the Keira Knightley character in Bend it Like Beckham, and celebrity chef Jamie Oliver's wife—spelled Jools.
Still, with Jude, Hayes, and Cruz in style, Jules has been receiving more attention in recent years, with 131 boys given the name in the latest US count, compared to 88 the year prior.
Pronounced JOOLZ.
As of October 2026, Jules ranked #1396 in US births in 2025 SSA, peaked at #412 in 1893, Nameberry popularity #204.
Editor's take: The name Jules is a boy's name of French, Latin origin meaning "youthful; soft, downy; sky father".
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank | Births | Per million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | #2,130 | 65 | 33.8 |
| 2015 | #1,660 | 95 | 49.6 |
| 2016 | #1,805 | 84 | 44.3 |
| 2017 | #1,730 | 90 | 48.6 |
| 2018 | #1,755 | 88 | 48.5 |
| 2019 | #1,638 | 100 | 55.7 |
| 2020 | #1,440 | 120 | 69.5 |
| 2021 | #1,534 | 115 | 65.7 |
| 2022 | #1,606 | 109 | 62.4 |
| 2023 | #1,614 | 108 | 63.1 |
| 2024 | #1,837 | 88 | 51.1 |
| 2025 | #1,396 | 131 | 76.7 |
World rankings
Similar names
These 20 names were selected by our users looking for other names like Jules.
- Asa
- Quincy
- Roscoe
- Morgan
- Caspar
- Darcy
- Odin
- Robin
- Shiloh
- Jericho
- Eden
- Rex
- Bellamy
- Ira
- Boaz
- Byron
- Dexter
- Montgomery
- Finnick
- Blaise
Jules on lists
Famous Juless
- Jules Gabriel Verne
French author
- Jules Olitski
American painter
- Jules Ralph Feiffer
American cartoonist
- Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet
French composer
- Jules Sébastien César Dumont d'Urville
French explorer
- Jules Lucien André Bianchi
French Formula One driver
- Jules Michelet
French historian
- Jules Jordan
American adult film director
- Jules Jean Baptiste Vincent Bordet
French microbiologist; winner of the Nobel Prize
- Jules A. Hoffmann
French biologist; winner of the Nobel Prize
- Jules Jeptha "Jep" Robertson
American reality TV personality ("Duck Dynasty")
- Jules Augustus "Gus" Robertson
adopted son of Jep and Jessica Robertson
- Jules Andrew Grey (b. 2015)
son of American producer Brad Grey
- Jules Hudson
British TV host (Escape to the Country); author
Jules in pop culture
- Jules Amedée François Maigret
detective created by Georges Simenon
- Jules
birth name of "Star Trek: Deep Space 9" character Dr. Julian Bashir
- Jules Winnfield
character in "Pulp Fiction"
- Julian "Jules" Wyatt
main character in G. A. Henty's, Through Russian Snows
- Jules de St. Caux
character in G. A. Henty's, In the Reign of Terror
- Julian "Jules" Blackthorn
main character in Cassandra Clare's The Dark Artifices and The Mortal Instruments series
- "Jules and Jim
" 1963 French film
- Juliet "Jules" O'Hara
LAPD officer and love interest, Psych