Yehuda
Masculine · “praised”
Yehuda is the Hebrew name behind Judah and Jude, and it has been spoken without interruption for some three thousand years — in Genesis, in the kingdom that took the name, and in Jewish households ever since. The word "Jew" itself traces back to it. Said aloud it opens wide in the middle, yeh-HOO-dah, three syllables that end soft.
How old is the name Yehuda?
Yehuda first appears in US birth records in 1950 — 75 years ago. The typical Yehuda alive today was born around 2011, making them about 14 years old. About 7,700 people named Yehuda are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Yehuda most popular?
Yehuda peaked in 2024, reaching #720 nationally. Today it ranks #740, 20 places below that high. See the whole 2024 chart.
Where it comes from
From Yehudah to Yehuda
The story of Yehuda
Yehudah begins as the fourth son of Jacob and Leah in Genesis, and the name then does something unusual: it grows outward from a person to a tribe, to a territory, to the southern kingdom of Judah, to the Persian province of Yehud, and finally to a whole people — Yehudi, from which English gets "Jew" and "Judaism." Greek-speaking translators of the Hebrew Bible wrote it Ioudas, Latin made it Iudas, and English inherited Judah and Jude from that line. The Hebrew form itself never went anywhere; it stayed in continuous everyday use in Jewish communities, later paired in Yiddish custom with Leib, "lion," after Jacob's blessing that calls Judah a lion's whelp. It reached the United States with those communities and is still given here in its unaltered Hebrew form.
Meaning
praised, or thanksgiving
Genesis 29:35 gives the reading directly: Leah names her fourth son after saying she will praise God, tying Yehudah to the Hebrew root behind hodah, to thank or praise. Some scholars treat that as a folk etymology attached to an older tribal or territorial name, but "praise" is the reading carried by the tradition and by standard reference works.
How the name formed
- Yehudah
- Ioudas
- Iudas
- Judah
- Jude
Related forms: יְהוּדָה (Yehudah) · Judah · Jude · Ioudas · Judá · Yidel
Pronouncing Yehuda
yeh-HOO-dah
Stress falls on the middle syllable. The final vowel is a clear "ah," not a swallowed "uh," though American speakers often soften it to yuh-HOO-duh.
Nicknames for Yehuda
High
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
- 1950
- Most boys named
- 2024365 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #720reached in 2024
- Change vs 2024
- −3.8%351 in 2025, from 365
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.
Yehuda in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- יְהוּדָה (Yehudah) in Hebrew — transliteration
- Judah in English — same name
- Jude in English — related form
- Ioudas in Greek — same name
- Judá in Spanish — same name
- Yidel in Yiddish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, New Jersey, Maryland.
Yehudas among us
people named Yehuda are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 4,866 born in 2025 was named Yehuda
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 Alexandro test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Yehuda's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Alexandro climbed just as high around 2002, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Alexandro's path sketches the road Yehuda is walking now.
Yehuda 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 Yehuda is headed
Yehuda 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.
Yehuda beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Yehuda in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Roughly three thousand years of unbroken use, from Genesis through the kingdom of Judah to the present day.
- Travels between languages with ready-made equivalents: Judah in English, Judá in Spanish, Ioudas in Greek.
- Several established short forms already in real use — Yudi, Yud, Leib, and the English Judah or Jude.
- Spelled the way it sounds once heard, with no silent letters and no competing pronunciation.
- Outside communities where Hebrew names are everyday, the first attempt is often ya-HOO-da or a stumble at the opening syllable. A one-time correction, but a lifelong one.
- The name is strongly and specifically Jewish. For many families that is exactly the point; it is worth naming clearly rather than discovering later.
- Its Greek descendant Judas carries the New Testament association. Yehuda and Judah are untouched by it in Jewish usage, but the resemblance can prompt questions from people who do not know the difference.
- It is given steadily rather than widely, and clusters in particular regions, so a child may be the only Yehuda in the room outside those places.
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What they receive
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Yehuda
Masculine · #740 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Yehudas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 7,700 people named Yehuda are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Yehuda in 2025?
- Yehuda ranks #740 among US boy names in 2025, with 351 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Yehuda?
- About 1 in every 4,866 US boys born in 2025 was named Yehuda — 351 in all.
- Will my child share the name Yehuda with classmates?
- Yehuda will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Yehuda
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Bruno#740 · Rudy#739 · Clyde#742 · Zahir#738 · Abram#742 · Brixton#744 · Yousef#744 · Huxley#736
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Yehuda? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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