June (given name)


June is a gender-neutral given name. It is a common feminine name and a less common masculine name in English-speaking countries. It comes from the name of the month, which is derived from Juno, the name of a Roman goddess of youth and protection. Her name, derived from the Latin “Iūnō,” stems from the root word for “young”, signifying vital energy and fertility. She was revered the queen of the gods and the goddess of love and marriage. June is also a short form of the names Juniper, Junia, Junius and Junior.
June is also an unrelated Basque feminine name meaning "place of the reeds".
June was first used as a name in the United States during the 18th century. As a masculine name, it was most often either a hypocorism for Junius, a personal name derived from the Ancient Roman Junia gens, or from the name of the month. Women were also named after the month. It was a unisex name most commonly used for African American slaves and descendants of slaves in the Antebellum South during the 19th century. The name later came into use as a popular name for American girls, in part due to its similarity to other popular names such as Jane, Jean, and Joan. It increased in use for girls after 1910 and reached a peak in 1925 as the 39th most popular name. It then gradually declined until it dropped off the top 1000 list of names in 1987. In recent years, it has started to make a comeback: in 2024 it ranked 152. As a boy's name for American boys, June reached a peak in 1922 at 697th, but then also declined and left the top 1000 list in 1939. The name is also well-used for girls in Belgium, France, Netherlands, and the Basque Country in Spain during the 2020s.

People named June include

In the Arts

In Sports

Others

Fictional characters