Message: "Julia" - Behind the Name

Julia

by -Violetta Lavender- (-Julia-)

11/11/2009, 2:31 PM

I've never been completely sure about the meaning of my name. I know, you'd think I would know the meaning by now. I've been on this site so long.

Is the meaning of Julia just the feminine form of the name Julius, or does it mean 'youthful?' I'n really not sure... :/

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- Llewella (penguiny7) +3

11/11/2009, 4:44 PM

Where are you getting "youthful" from? Julia is the feminine form of Julius, and Julius doesn't mean youthful.

- Anneza +2

11/11/2009, 9:57 PM

If, and it's a genuine if, Julius means "downy-bearded", then - male shaving habits being what they are - it should refer to the first whiskers a young gentleman sprouts. So there's your "youthful" idea.

I think we're actually up against the same mindset one sees with names like Charlotte and Andrea, where instead of thinking of them as the feminine forms of Charles and Andrew, meaning "male" or "manly", people prefer to gender-switch the definition and say that Charlotte, Andrea, Caroline etc "really" mean "womanly" or "female".

- Llewella (penguiny7) +1

11/12/2009, 2:55 AM

I think that's a huge stretch, but I don't know the connotation of "ioulos" in Greek. Making those inferences for Charlotte et al. makes a lot more sense.

- Murasaki (lady murasaki)

11/14/2009, 6:13 AM

I find considering Charlotte and Andrea as meaning "woman" or "female" a stretch as well (after all Andrea comes from the Greek "andros" which means man), they're all part of those prettified etymologies for which each name must have a nice meaning and its own meaning, god forbid it's just a form of another name.

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