Jude
Meaning of Jude
Jude, pronounced “jood,” is the streamlined Latin form of Judah, carrying the Hebrew meaning “praised” without the baggage of the longer, more fraught Judas. It entered English through the epistle of St. Jude the Apostle—patron saint of lost causes—giving the name an undercurrent of quiet resilience. In American records it spent decades in statistical obscurity, only to edge upward after the Beatles released “Hey Jude” in 1968; since 2010 it has hovered comfortably around rank 150, a sweet spot between ubiquity and rarity. The single-syllable profile feels crisp and contemporary, yet its biblical pedigree supplies a reassuring sense of permanence. Pop-culture touchpoints such as actor Jude Law and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital further anchor the name in the modern ear. Neither burdened with tricky spellings nor dependent on nicknames, Jude offers parents a succinct, dignified choice—classical, but not stuck in the past.
Pronunciation
British English
- Pronunced as jood (/dʒuːd/)
American English
- Pronunced as jood (/dʒud/)
U.S. Popularity Chart
States Popularity Chart
Notable People Named Jude
| Jude Law is an English actor who rose from British theatre to international fame with The Talented Mr. Ripley in 1999, winning a BAFTA for supporting actor and earning an Academy Award nomination. |
| Judith Jude Pamela Kelly is a British theatre director and producer, founder of the Women of the World Festival, former Artistic Director of the Southbank Centre in London, and since 2025 Master of St Catherine's College, Oxford. |
| Jude Deveraux is an American historical romance author with over 40 novels, many New York Times bestsellers including A Knight in Shining Armor and Remembrance, over 50 million copies sold by 2016, and an appearance as herself in the 1987 documentary Where the Heart Roams. |
| Jude is a notable American singer and songwriter. |
| Jude Hill is a Northern Irish child actor who won the Critics Choice Award for Best Young Performer for his lead role in the Kenneth Branagh film Belfast and later starred in A Haunting in Venice. |
| Jude Bolton is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League from 1999 to 2013. |
| Claire Jude Demorest is an American actress and singer known for Dallas and Star. |
