Judith
Meaning of Judith
Judith is the Anglicised form of the Hebrew Yehudit, usually rendered “woman of Judea,” and anchored in the Apocryphal tale of the intrepid heroine who beheaded Holofernes to save her people—a narrative that lends the name an understated aura of strategic courage. In English it is pronounced JOO-dith (/ˈdʒuːdɪθ/). Stateside data trace a clear arc: Judith vaulted into America’s Top 25 during the baby-boom era, peaking at No. 21 in 1950 when more than 15,000 newborns received it, then drifted steadily downward, landing in the mid-600s today with roughly 300 annual occurrences. The pattern suggests a classic that has slipped from fashion without disappearing, maintaining just enough usage to stay recognisable while avoiding playground saturation—an arrangement some parents would call efficient branding. Diminutives such as Judy and Jude add flexibility, and literary or artistic associations—from Dame Judi Dench to the Shakespearian Lady Mountjoy—sustain a cultured sheen. Overall, Judith presents as a time-tested appellation: succinct, historically weighty, and quietly resilient in modern registers.
Pronunciation
British English
- Pronunced as JOO-dith (/ˈdʒu:ːdɪθ/)
American English
- Pronunced as JOO-dith (/ˈdʒuːdɪθ/)
U.S. Popularity Chart
States Popularity Chart
Notable People Named Judith
| Judith Butler is an American feminist philosopher and gender studies scholar influential in political philosophy, ethics, third-wave feminism, queer theory, and literary theory. |
| NASA astronaut Judith Resnik, the first Jewish woman in space, died in the Challenger disaster. |
| Judith of Bavaria, second wife of Louis the Pious, was a Carolingian empress whose son's birth sparked imperial succession conflicts and her eventual fall from power. |
| Judith Heumann, known as the "Mother of the Disability Rights Movement," was a pioneering American activist who advanced disability rights globally through legislation and international development. |
| Judith Anderson, an Australian actress, achieved success in stage, film, and television. |
| Judith Ellen Light is an American actress who won two Daytime Emmy Awards in the early 1980s and a Primetime Emmy in 2024. |
| Judith of Flanders, a Carolingian princess, was twice Queen of Wessex through successive marriages and later Countess of Flanders, where she had children in her third union. |
| Judith Rita Cohen is a Canadian ethnomusicologist, educator, and performer specializing in Judeo-Spanish songs and medieval music. |
| Judith Curry - Judith A. Curry is a distinguished American climatologist who chaired Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech, authored over a hundred scientific papers, and retired in 2017. |
| Judith Ann Kaye was an American lawyer and jurist who served as the Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals from 1993 to 2008. |
| Judith Ann Jamison was an acclaimed American dancer and choreographer who danced with, inspired, and later led the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, receiving prestigious honors such as the Kennedy Center Honors. |
| Judith Jans Leyster, a Dutch Golden Age painter, was forgotten after her death and her works misattributed until rediscovery in 1893. |
| Judith Rossner was an American novelist acclaimed for her bestsellers Looking for Mr. Goodbar and August. |
| Judith Arundell Wright was an Australian poet, environmentalist, and Aboriginal land rights advocate who received the Christopher Brennan Award and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. |
| Judith Sargent Murray - Judith Sargent Stevens Murray was an early American writer and pioneering advocate for women's equality and economic independence. |
