Don’t forget Justin Martyr, died around AD 168. The name’s been around a while.
Jeremy’s a Biblican name – it comes from Jeremiah. Ditto for Jordan – its origin should be obvious.
Lesson number 1 here: First Names go in cycles!
Seems that there was a Weird Earl’s recently that was tagged “Not so much weird as very interesting.”
It had a very graphical representation of how names have fluctuated in numerical straength overt the past few decades.
I don’t know if the following is an example counterto your perception or not. You tell me if it counts. I know someone originally named “Arthur” … “Art” for short who took the name Justin in 1980 as a convert to Eastern Orthodoxy. He is 53 as of this past January.
Maybe that’s not a very good example. I suspect, however, that if you ask around you’ll find plenty of folks born into Orthodoxy over 40 given that name.
True Blue Jack
Justin Tarr from “The Rat Patrol”, a mid to late '60s TV series.
My brother Justin was born in the late 60s and as we were growing up, he was definitely the only one around. My name is relatively uncommon too and I always figured people thought my parents were weird for having come up with those two names. He would have been named after Justin Martyr (my parents used the book of saints’ names to find ours).
As kids started getting named Justin by the droves in the 80s, we were always surprised to hear that name get called out so often.
As to where the names come from - There is a great article on Slate
that makes the case that names are economically driven … rich folks get a hold of a name, it is trendy and hip, then poorer folks down the round grab on and the name losses cachet … I don’t have the expertise to endorse it or cry BS - but there is a theory
Don’t forget the inventor of the “Be Prepared” slogan, Justin Case.
In the 1930 U.S. census there were 6,400 people with the first name “Justin”.