How many Yehudahs are there in the world?

No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Yehudah are estimated to be alive in the US today.

How do you spell Yehudah?

Yehudah is one of 2 recorded spellings. Yehuda is the more common one — 351 births in 2025 against 24 for Yehudah.

How popular is the name Yehudah in 2025?

Yehudah ranks #4249 among US boy names in 2025, with 24 babies given the name.

How rare is the name Yehudah?

About 1 in every 71,170 US boys born in 2025 was named Yehudah — 24 in all.

Will my child share the name Yehudah with classmates?

Yehudah will almost certainly be the only one in school.

Yehudah

Masculine · “praised”

#4249 in the U.S.given to only a few children a year

rare24 boys in 2025

Yehudah is Hebrew for praised, and it is the name that gives the world the words Jew, Judaism and Judea.

How old is the name Yehudah?

Yehudah first appears in US birth records in 1954 — 71 years ago. The typical Yehudah alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 800 people named Yehudah are estimated to be alive in the US today.

When was the name Yehudah most popular?

Yehudah peaked in 1982, reaching #2972 nationally. Today it ranks #4249, 1,277 places below that high. See the whole 1982 chart.

Compare this name More “Y” names

Lists built from the same records:

Where it comes from

Origin, sound and short forms

The story of Yehudah

Judah is the fourth of Jacob's sons and the ancestor of the tribe that gave its name to the southern kingdom, then to the Roman province of Judea, then to a whole people — the word Jew is this name worn down through Greek and Latin. Judah is also the one who offers himself in place of Benjamin, which is the turning point of the Joseph narrative. The name is used across Jewish communities.

Meaning

praised, thanksgiving

From Hebrew yadah, to praise or give thanks; Genesis has Leah say she will praise the Lord and name the child accordingly. Judah, Jew and Judaism all descend from this one name.

Pronouncing Yehudah

yeh-HOO-dah

Three syllables with the stress in the middle. Hebrew stresses the last.

Nicknames for Yehudah

Moderate

YudiAn affectionate community household form

YehudA clipped form used at home

JudeThe English relative

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: 1954
Most boys named: 200928 — the highest on record
Peak rank: #2972reached in 1982
Change vs 2024: +60.0%24 in 2025, from 15

Yehudah sits in the rare tail. Its best year on record was 2009, with 28 boys. Today it is given to few enough children that it does not enter the ranked charts at all.

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.

Yehudah in other languages

The same name elsewhere

Yehuda in Hebrew — spelling variant
Judah in English — same name
Yehuda in Yiddish — same name

Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, New Jersey.

Yehudahs among us

800

people named Yehudah are estimated to be alive in the US today

About 1 boy in 71,170 born in 2025 was named Yehudah

Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method

Spellings of Yehudah

#4249
Yehudah on the 2025 chart: #585
counting every spelling

The SSA counts spellings, not names. Yehudah went to 24 boys in 2025, but Yehuda is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 375, which makes it the 585th most-given boys’ name of the year — 3,664 places above the chart.

Yehuda351
Yehudah24

About 1 boy in 4,555 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 71,170 for Yehudah 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

III

Is it right for you

What happens to a name after it peaks

The Avrom test

Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Yehudah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Avrom climbed just as high around 1934, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Avrom's path sketches the road Yehudah is walking now.

40%chance Yehudah will feel dated by 2040

Yehudah, aligned on its peakAvrom· peak 1934not yet written

Yehudah today is about where Avrom stood in 1977 — 43 years past a #2973-sized peak. Within 15 years, Avrom had drifted out of the mainstream charts.

Ages quietlysteadyDates fast

Yehudah 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

Yehudah beside its neighbors

The names ranked closest to Yehudah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.

Yehudahthis name24#4249Guadalupe24#4249Denny24#4249Hughes24#4249Erling24#4249

US boys given each name in 2025.

The trade-off

Practical strengths

A settled meaning that the biblical text explains outright.
One of the most consequential names in human history stands behind it.
Jude is available as a familiar English relative.

What to consider

Judah is the English form and will be assumed by most Americans.
Seven letters and three syllables is a fair amount for early handwriting.
The stress differs between the Hebrew and American readings.

Nobody names a baby alone.
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Yehudah

Masculine · #4249 in the U.S.

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Frequently asked

How many Yehudahs are there in the world?: No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Yehudah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
How do you spell Yehudah?: Yehudah is one of 2 recorded spellings. Yehuda is the more common one — 351 births in 2025 against 24 for Yehudah.
How popular is the name Yehudah in 2025?: Yehudah ranks #4249 among US boy names in 2025, with 24 babies given the name.
How rare is the name Yehudah?: About 1 in every 71,170 US boys born in 2025 was named Yehudah — 24 in all.
Will my child share the name Yehudah with classmates?: Yehudah will almost certainly be the only one in school.

Ranked beside Yehudah

Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.

Guadalupe^#4249 · Denny^#4249 · Hughes^#4249 · Erling^#4249 · Rodrick^#4249 · Elric^#4249 · Ron^#4249 · Wright^#4249

Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Yehudah? See the current top 100.

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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology

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