Is National Julie Day a public holiday?

No. It is an unofficial observance, not a federal or public holiday, so businesses, banks, and schools stay open and it is a normal working day.

Who started National Julie Day and why is it on May 22?

No founder, proclamation, or organization is on record, and no source explains the choice of May 22. The day circulates organically through individual social posts celebrating people named Julie.

Is National Julie Day the same as the feast of St. Julia?

No, though they share the date. May 22 is the Catholic feast of St. Julia of Corsica, a fifth-century martyr whose name is Julie in French, while National Julie Day is a modern, unofficial tribute to everyone named Julie. No source connects the two.

What does the name Julie mean?

Julie is the French form of Julia, the feminine of the Roman name Julius. It is traditionally glossed as youthful or downy-bearded, though the original meaning is not certain.

How popular has the name Julie been?

In the United States, Julie ranked among the top 100 girls' names every year from 1951 to 1991 and peaked at tenth in 1971. In France it peaked later, in 1987.

National Julie Day

Next celebratedSaturday, May 22, 2027

A name-appreciation observance on May 22 celebrating people named Julie and the long cultural history of the name.

See how to celebrate

Countdown to the day

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Last updated April 15, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?

YEARLY DATEMay 22

OBSERVED INUnited States

CATEGORYNames

ORIGIN

Community Origin

FOUNDING ENTITY

Not documented

FIRST OBSERVED

Not documented

HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

A name day with no documented author.

No documented founder, proclamation, or establishing organization has been identified for National Julie Day. It circulates as a May 22 name-appreciation observance, attested by individual social posts celebrating people named Julie; its specific author and first year are undocumented.

+ Know the story? Submit a founder Help us complete this holiday

INTRO

The saint, the slave, and the name on the chart

Every May 22, the Catholic Church remembers a Carthaginian slave who was crucified for refusing to sacrifice to pagan gods. Her name, in French, is Julie, and she is a patron saint of Corsica.

On exactly the same date, a much lighter thing happens online. People post a quick note to wish a happy National Julie Day to the Julies in their lives. Nobody who runs the modern observance seems to know about the martyr, and no source ties the two together; they simply share a square on the calendar.

That accident is a fair introduction to the name itself. Julie is short, modern, and friendly, the kind of name an American grandmother and her granddaughter might share. Pull the thread, though, and it runs back through a French novel, a Roman emperor's exiled daughter, and one of the oldest families in the ancient world.

ORIGINS

Julie Day history

INTRODUCTION

The name begins in Rome, with a family rather than a person. Julie is the French form of Julia, and Julia is the feminine of Julius, the name of the gens Julia, one of Rome's oldest patrician houses. The family told a grand story about itself, claiming descent from Iulus, also called Ascanius, the son of the Trojan hero Aeneas, and through him from the goddess Venus.

What the name actually meant is less certain than the family tree. It is traditionally glossed as youthful or downy-bearded, after a Greek word for the first soft hairs on a young man's chin. An older guess ties it instead to Jove, the chief Roman god, and both readings have come down to us as possibilities rather than settled fact.

CHAPTER 01

The Roman women named Julia

The most famous member of the family was Gaius Julius Caesar, and his only legitimate child was a daughter, Julia. To bind himself to a rival, Caesar married her to Pompey the Great. She died in childbirth in 54 BC, and ancient writers blamed her death for loosening the tie between the two men whose quarrel would tear Rome apart.

A generation later the pattern repeated. Augustus, the first emperor, had one biological child, and she too was a Julia. He exiled her in 2 BC and she died in disgrace, but the name kept marching through Rome's founding generations.

CHAPTER 02

From a martyr to a French heroine

The name outlived the empire by passing into the church. Around the fifth century a Christian woman named Julia, sold into slavery after Carthage fell, was crucified on Corsica when she would not honor pagan gods. She became a saint, her name later written in French as Julie, and her feast settled onto May 22.

Centuries later that French form found its way into literature. In 1761 Jean-Jacques Rousseau named his heroine Julie in Julie, or the New Heloise, a novel so popular it was among the best-sellers of the entire eighteenth century. In 1888 August Strindberg gave the stage its tense, doomed Miss Julie.

CHAPTER 03

The day with no author

The name, in short, has two thousand years of paperwork behind it. The observance has almost none: no founder, proclamation, or organization is on record for National Julie Day, and no source explains why May 22 was chosen. It lives the way these small name days tend to live, in scattered social posts on the date, a modern wink at a very old name.

TIMELINE

Timeline

Caesar's daughter dies

Julia, the only legitimate child of Julius Caesar and the wife of Pompey, dies in childbirth, removing a tie between two rival leaders.

An emperor's daughter dies in exile

Julia the Elder, the only biological child of the emperor Augustus, dies after years banished for adultery.

A slave is martyred on Corsica

Julia of Carthage, sold into slavery, is crucified on Corsica for refusing to sacrifice to pagan gods and is later venerated as a saint, her name written in French as Julie.

Rousseau names a best-seller

Jean-Jacques Rousseau publishes Julie, or the New Heloise, named for its heroine and one of the best-selling novels of the eighteenth century.

Strindberg writes Miss Julie

August Strindberg writes his naturalistic tragedy Miss Julie, which becomes a fixture of modern theatre.

Julie peaks in America

Julie reaches its all-time high in the United States, the tenth most popular girls' name of the year.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Julie Day by the Numbers

#10: Julie's peak US girls' name rank, 1971
40 yrs: Julie in the US top 100, 1951 to 1991
9,908: Girls named Julie in France in 1987, its French peak

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Julie Day

COINCIDENCE

An anonymous observance with a fifth-century namesake beside it.

Most modern name days float on a date no one can explain. National Julie Day at least keeps good company: May 22 is also the feast of St. Julia of Corsica, whose name in French is Julie. No source links them, but the overlap hands an anonymous observance a fifth-century namesake to stand beside.

DEPTH

It honors a name with Roman roots

Few given names can trace a clean line back to a named family in ancient Rome. Julie can, through Julia and the gens Julia, which gives a light observance a genuinely old subject to celebrate.

GENERATION

It speaks to a whole cohort of women

Through the middle of the last century, a wave of American girls grew up answering to the same first name in every classroom. The day is a small thank-you to that cohort, the friends and mothers and coworkers who shared a name without ever choosing it.

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Julie Day

Wish the Julies in your life a happy name day

Send a quick message to every Julie you know on May 22. A name day is a chance to make someone feel noticed for nothing more than who they are.

LOOK

Look up where the name sits on the charts

Browse the popularity history of the name on a reference like Behind the Name and find its rise to tenth place and its slow slide since. A quick search turns into a small history lesson.

READ

Read a famous Julie

Pick up Rousseau's Julie, or the New Heloise, or read Strindberg's Miss Julie. Both put the name at the center of a story that shaped European literature and theatre.

Share the name's Roman backstory

Tell a Julie that her name descends from the gens Julia, the family of Julius Caesar, who traced themselves back to a Trojan prince. It reliably surprises people who think of it as a modern name.

POST

Post a tribute online

Add a short note or photo celebrating a Julie you love and tag the date. The observance lives almost entirely on these small, organic posts.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Julie Day?

1 / 7

Julie is the French form of which name?

Answer

National Julie Day is observed on May 22 each year in the United States.

COLOPHON

Sources

How we know what’s on this page. References, not endorsements.

8sources

0primary records

1independently dated

Behind the Name2025

View source

Behind the Name

Julie, given name meaning, origin and history

Identifies Julie as the French, Danish, Norwegian, and Czech form of Julia, common in English-speaking countries since the early twentieth century.

View source

Wikipedia

Julie (given name)

Traces the etymology from Julia and Julius with the youthful and devoted-to-Jove glosses, the US peak of number ten in 1971, and the French peak of 9,908 births in 1987.

View source

Wikipedia

Julia gens

Describes the ancient Roman patrician family that claimed descent from Iulus, son of Aeneas, and through him from Venus; its most famous member was Julius Caesar.

View source

Encyclopaedia Britannica

Julia, daughter of Julius Caesar

Profiles Caesar's only legitimate child, married to Pompey to seal a political alliance, who died in childbirth in 54 BC.

View source

Wikipedia

Julia of Corsica

Profiles the Carthaginian slave crucified on Corsica and venerated as a saint, whose name appears in French as Julie and whose Catholic feast is kept on May 22.

View source

Wikipedia

Julie; or, The New Heloise

Describes Rousseau's 1761 epistolary novel named for its heroine Julie, among the best-selling novels of the eighteenth century.

View source

Wikipedia

Miss Julie

Describes Strindberg's naturalistic tragedy, written in 1888, a foundational work of modern theatre.

View source

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