Derived from the Latin iustus, “righteous” or “just,” Justus entered the onomastic record of the Western church as an honorific cognomen for several early Christian figures—among them Saint Justus of Lyon, a 4th-century bishop, and Joseph called Barsabbas-Justus, who appears in the Acts of the Apostles—thereby attaching the idea of moral rectitude to the name’s semantic core. In contemporary English it is articulated as JUSS-tuhs (/ˈdʒʌs.təs/), while the older continental form preserves a soft initial consonant in German, YOO-stoos (/ˈju.stʊs/), reflecting its passage through different phonological systems. Although never dominant in American civil registers, Justus has exhibited a remarkably steady, mid-range presence for well over a century; its annual rank has hovered between approximately 200 and 850, indicating a pattern of modest but persistent favor that peaks gently in the post-World War II baby boom and again—though less dramatically—during the early digital era of the 2000s. Because its lexical root transparently evokes justice, parents who select Justus often cite aspirations toward integrity, impartiality, and civic virtue, while the name’s classical pedigree affords it a scholarly aura that aligns comfortably with Anglo-American naming traditions favoring virtue vocabulary filtered through Latin.
Justus von Liebig - |
Justus van Egmont - |
Justus Lipsius - |
Justus van Effen - |
Justus Jonas - |
Justus Möser - |
Justus Falckner - |
Justus Esiri - |
Justus de Huybert - |
Justus Hollatz - |
Justus Hecker - |
Justus Hübsch von Grossthal - |
Justus B. Entz - |
Justus Miles Forman - |
Justus Hermann Lipsius - |