Jud
Masculine · “Hebrew Yehudah”
Adoniram Judson sailed for Asia in 1812 as one of the first American foreign missionaries, spent thirty-seven years in Burma, and left his surname on colleges, churches and a great many American boys.
How old is the name Jud?
Jud first appears in US birth records in 1915 — 110 years ago. The typical Jud alive today was born around 1960, making them about 65 years old. About 400 people named Jud are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jud most popular?
Jud peaked in 1948, reaching #1943 nationally. Today it ranks #10695, 8,752 places below that high. See the whole 1948 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yehudah to Jud
The story of Jud
Judson and his wife Ann were among the first Americans sent abroad as missionaries, arriving in Burma in 1813 after being expelled from India. He compiled a Burmese-English dictionary and translated the Bible into Burmese, was imprisoned for nearly two years during the Anglo-Burmese war, and lost two wives and several children to disease. American Baptists made him a national figure, and Judson became a given name and the name of colleges, churches and towns across the country in the nineteenth century. Jud is its clipped form and also serves for Judah and Jude, which are the same Hebrew name, one of the twelve tribes and the ancestor of the word Jew.
Meaningscholars disagree
Hebrew Yehudah, praised
Jud is a short form of Judson or of Judah and Jude, from Hebrew Yehudah, connected in Genesis to a verb meaning to praise. Judson is an English surname meaning son of Jordan or of Judd. The peak of the clipped form is 1948.
How the name formed
- Yehudah
- Judson
- Jud
Related forms: Judd · Jude
Pronouncing Jud
JUD
One syllable. Jud and Judd are homophones; the doubled d is the more common spelling of the surname.
Nicknames for Jud
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1915
- Most boys named
- 197017 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1943reached in 1948
- Change vs 2023
- +20.0%6 in 2025, from 5
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Jud in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Judd in English — spelling variant
- Jude in English — related form
Juds among us
people named Jud are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 284,679 born in 2025 was named Jud
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Jud
- #10695
- Jud on the 2025 chart
- #826
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Jud went to 6 boys in 2025, but Judd is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 102, which makes it the 826th most-given boys’ name of the year — 9,869 places above the chart.
- Judd96
- Jud6
About 1 boy in 16,746 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 284,679 for Jud itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Roberts test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jud's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Roberts climbed just as high around 1913, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Roberts's path sketches the road Jud is walking now.
Jud sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Jud beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jud in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable and three letters.
- Judson, Judah and Jude are all available as fuller forms.
- It pairs cleanly with long surnames.
- Judd with two d is the more common spelling.
- It reads as a clipped form.
- The 1948 peak dates it to the mid-century.
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Jud
Masculine · #10695 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Juds are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Jud are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Jud?
- Jud is one of 2 recorded spellings. Judd is the more common one — 96 births in 2025 against 6 for Jud.
- How popular is the name Jud in 2025?
- Jud ranks #10695 among US boy names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jud?
- About 1 in every 284,679 US boys born in 2025 was named Jud — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jud with classmates?
- Jud will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jud
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Dudley#10695 · Dell#10695 · Buford#10695 · Toney#10695 · Allison#10695 · Candido#10695 · Jodie#10695 · Nora#10695
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jud? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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