Friday, June 5, 2015


While everyone will have differing opinions about which are The Very Best J Names for Boys and Girls, I'm sure many can agree that Juno is an interesting and unique choice!

The feminine name Juno is very mythological. The ancient Roman goddess was a daughter of Saturn, the wife (and sister!) of the Jupiter and the mother of Mars and Vulcan. She was the goddess of marriage and childbirth and often looked after the women of Rome. Juno was also the Queen of the Gods, known as "Regina" which means Queen. Her Greek equivalent is the goddess Hera.

The meaning of the name Juno is generally thought to be unknown but some speculate that it is related to an Indo-European root word that means "youth".  Juno is a variation of the Roman name Iuno. Other related names are Iunius, Junius, Iunia, and Junia.

As a name, Juno isn't very used in the US. It randomly charted way back in 1919 with 6 births and it wasn't heard from again until 1996.

This name really wasn't on anyone's radar until the popular Indie film Juno came out in 2007. There were only 7 girls with this name in 2006, but because of the film, 11 girls were given the name Juno in 2007 and 33 in 2008.

It has continued to slowly inch up the charts after that with a peak of 61 births in 2011. As of 2014, though, the name Juno has declined a bit to only 49 births for the year.

Interestingly, this name is also being used for boys despite the strong association with the goddess. It actually had more births in 2007 for a boy than for a girl but it didn't get a usage boost after that. It wasn't given to boys at all in 2010 but the year 2014 had 15 boys named Juno.

While I've seen this name get thrown around the baby naming community quite a bit, it has yet to catch on with mainstream America. However, that's probably a good thing because Juno can continue to remain a rare gem for the time being. If you are interested in using this unranked and unusual name, your child will be one of a kind in their school.

Here are some ideas for sibling names and middle names for Juno:

Sibling Name Ideas:
Sisters: Aurora, Diana, Iris, Maren, Portia, Viola
Brothers: Antony, Damon, Fabian, Lucian, Marcus, Theon

Middle Name Ideas:
Juno Cecily
Juno Cordelia
Juno Eleanor
Juno Harper
Juno Violet

As a Middle Name:
Amelia Juno
Evelyn Juno
Liliana Juno
Michaela Juno
Victoria Juno

What do you think of Juno as a name? Would you use it for a boy? What middle name would you pair with it? Share your thoughts in the comments! 

Photo credit: "Juno sospita pushkin" by shakko - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

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