Judith
Feminine · “Woman of Judah”
Judith is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 454,714 girls against 1,241 boys since 1880. See Judith as a boy name
Judith is a name attached to one of the most painted scenes in European art, and the most famous version of it was made by a woman who had been through a rape trial in which she was tortured to test whether she was telling the truth. She painted the subject more than once.
How old is the name Judith?
Judith was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Judith alive today was born around 1948, making them about 77 years old. About 307,000 people named Judith are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Judith most popular?
Judith peaked in 1940, reaching #4 nationally. Today it ranks #788, 784 places below that high. See the whole 1940 chart.
Where it comes from
From Yehudit to Judith
The story of Judith
The story is short, violent and deliberately shocking: a widow walks into an enemy camp, is admired by the general, waits until he is drunk, and cuts off his head with his own sword while his army sleeps. Renaissance and baroque painters could not leave it alone. Artemisia Gentileschi painted it at least twice, with the two women braced against the bed and the blood arcing, and the pictures are startlingly physical in a way the male versions of the same subject are not. Earlier, Florence had put a bronze of the same scene outside its town hall with an inscription about the destruction of tyrants, moved there after the ruling family was expelled. A biblical widow with a sword became the city's political emblem for a while, which is a career.
Meaning
Woman of Judah
The Hebrew is the feminine of the name of the southern kingdom and its founding tribe, so it means a woman of that people. It is an identity rather than a description, and it belongs to the same family of names as the word for a Jew, which comes from the same place name by way of Greek and Latin.
How the name formed
- Yehudit
- Judith
Related forms: Judith · Judith · Giuditta · Judit · Judit
Pronouncing Judith
JOO-dith
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The th is the unvoiced one, as in thin rather than as in this; the Hebrew original ends in a different consonant altogether and the th is a transliteration convention.
Nicknames for Judith
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 194224,792 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #4reached in 1940
- Change vs 2022
- +8.9%344 in 2025, from 316
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.
Judith in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Judith in French — same name
- Judith in German — same name
- Giuditta in Italian — same name
- Judit in Spanish — same name
- Judit in Hungarian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York. INSEE rounds every published count to the nearest five for statistical confidentiality; the ranks are calculated from the exact figures. International figures from INSEE. Sources
Judiths among us
people named Judith are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 4,672 born in 2025 was named Judith
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Dorothy test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Judith's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Dorothy climbed just as high around 1920, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Dorothy's path sketches the road Judith is walking now.
Judith 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
Where Judith is headed
Judith should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Judith beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Judith in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled identically in French and German and nearly so in Italian, Spanish and Hungarian.
- Judy and Jude are two established short forms in very different registers.
- The name has been in continuous use in English since the Reformation without a break.
- The record carries it for boys in small numbers, so it is not quite an absolute signal.
- It is strongly dated to the middle of the last century in American ears.
- The story attached to it is violent, and a child who looks it up will find that first.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Judith to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Judith? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Judith
Feminine · #788 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Judiths are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 307,000 people named Judith are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Judith in 2025?
- Judith ranks #788 among US girl names in 2025, with 344 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Judith?
- About 1 in every 4,672 US girls born in 2025 was named Judith — 344 in all.
- Will my child share the name Judith with classmates?
- Judith will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Judith
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Emiliana#788 · Elouise#788 · Klarity#788 · Belen#785 · Journi#785 · Ocean#785 · Paloma#792 · Yareli#792
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Judith? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Judith and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle