Given name & surname
Justinian
“an upright ruler”
Justinian is used as a given name and a surname. One Latin interpretation is “an upright ruler.”
Original LatinJustinianus
Meaning & origin
What it means
One Latin interpretation is “an upright ruler.”
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is Latin.
How it developed
From Latin Iūstīniānus, built from Latin Iūstīnus + -iānus.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1982. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Justinian through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 78
- 78 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 1990
- 7 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 7 in 2014. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 147 as a first name in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Justinian’s family of names
Justinian has a related form in Justinas. Justinian has a related form in Justinien. Justinian has a related form in Justinios.
Inner ring: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Around the world
Justinian has relatives in 8 languages. Lines run from its Latin roots to each of them.
Latinwhere Justinian comes from · 1 name
Nicknames & forms 6
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Across languages 11
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
- JustinianusLatin
- JustinianoPortuguese
- Iustinianusequivalent
- Justynianequivalent
- Iustinianequivalent
- جستينيانequivalent
- GiustinianoItalian
- ἸουστινιανόςAncient Greek
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People named Justinian
- Patriarch Justinian of Romania3rd patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, from 1948 to 1977 (1901-1977)
- Justinian JessupAmerican basketball player (born 1998)
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
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