Judith (given name) explained

Judith
Pronunciation:	dʒu-dɪθ
Gender:	Female
Meaning:	"praised" or "Woman of Judea"
Origin:	Hebrew
Related Names:	Judy, Judah

Judith is a feminine given name derived from the Hebrew name Yəhūdīt (יְהוּדִית), meaning "praised" and also more literally "Woman of Judea". It is the feminine form of Judah. Judith appeared in the Hebrew Bible as one of Esau's wives, while the deuterocanonical Book of Judith tells of a different Judith.^[1] It is in common usage in English, French, German, many Scandinavian languages, Dutch, and Hebrew. In Ethiopia and Eritrea it is called Yodit.

The name was among the top 50 most popular given names for girls born in the United States between 1936 and 1956, but its popularity has since declined. It was the 893rd most popular name for baby girls born in the United States in 2012, down from 74th in 1960.^[2]

Name variants

Alternative forms of the name Judith include:

• Ditte (Danish)
• Ditka (Slovene)
• Giuditta (Italian)
• Iudita (Romanian)
• Iúidit (Irish)
• Jitka (Czech)
• Jodi (English)
• Jodie (English)
• Jody (English)
• Judeta (Spanish)
• Judina (Spanish)
• Judit (Catalan), (Danish), (Hungarian), (Norwegian), (Spanish), (Swedish)
• Judita (Croatian), (Czech), (Lithuanian), (Slovak), (Slovene), (Spanish)
• Judite (Portuguese)
• Judīte (Latvian)
• Juditha (French)
• Judithe (French)
• Judyta (Polish)
• Juta (Estonian)
• Jutka (Dutch), (Hungarian)
• Jutta (German)
• Jutte (Dutch), (German)
• Juut (Dutch)
• Jytte (Danish)
• Siobhán (Irish)
• Siùbhan (Scottish Gaelic)
• Yodit (Amharic)
• Yudit (Indonesian)
• Джудит Djudit (Russian)
• הודעס Hudes (Yiddish)
• Иудифь Iudif’ (Russian)
• Ιουδίθ Iudith (Greek)
• יהודית Y'hudit (Hebrew)
• يهوديت Yahudit (Arabic)
• יהודית Yehudit (Hebrew)
• יידעל Yidel (Yiddish)
• יודעל Yudel (Yiddish)
• Юдифь Yudif’ (Russian)
• יוטקע Yutke (Yiddish)

People

• Queen Judith (disambiguation), a number of medieval women
• Judith, heroine of the Book of Judith, one of the books included in the Biblical apocrypha
• Judith of Bavaria (died 843), Frankish queen
• Judith of Friuli (fl. 881), daughter of Eberhard
• Judith of Flanders (c. 843–c. 870), Princess of the Carolingian Franks, Queen of Wessex, Countess of Flanders
• Judith of Schweinfurt (fl. 1003–1058), wife of Bretislaus I of Bohemia
• Gudit (fl. 960), queen who sacked Axum, now in Ethiopia; also known as Judith or Yudit
• Zewditu I (1876–1930), queen of Ethiopia whose name is sometimes erroneously Anglicised as "Judith"
• Judith Allen (1911–1996), American actress
• Judith Anderson (1897–1992), Australian-born British actress
• Judith Arcana (born 1943), American writer
• Judith Arndt (born 1976), German cyclist
• Judith Arnold, pen name of Barbara Keeler, American romance novelist
• Judith Audu, Nigerian actress and blogger
• Judith Auer (1905–1944), Swiss resistance fighter
• Judith Babirye (born 1977), Ugandan gospel musician and politician
• Judith Baldwin (born 1946), American actress
• Judith Barsi (1978–1988), American child actress
• Judith Baumel (born 1956), American poet
• Judith Baxter (1955–2018), British sociolinguist
• Judith Berry (born 1961), Canadian painter
• Judith Binney (1940–2011), New Zealand historian
• Judith Black, American storyteller
• Judith Blau (born 1942), American sociologist
• Judith Blegen (born 1943), American operatic soprano
• Judith Bluck (1936–2011), English sculptor
• Judith K. Brodsky (born 1933), American artist and curator
• Judith Burganger (born 1939), American pianist
• Judith Butler (born 1956), American philosopher and writer
• Judith Martin Cadore (born 1957), American family physician
• Judith Chemla (born 1985), French actress
• Judith Collins (born 1959), New Zealand politician
• Judith Alice Clark (born 1949), American activist and convicted felon
• Judith Clute (born 1942), Canadian painter, graphic designer, printmaker, and illustrator
• Judith Curry (born 1953), American climatologist
• Judith Davidoff (1927–2021), American cellist and violinist
• Judith Donath (born 1962), American computer scientist
• Judith Durham (1943–2022), Australian singer
• Judith Evelyn (1909–1967), American actress
• Judith Fedder (born 1958), American United States Air Force lieutenant general
• Judith Fergin (born 1951), American ambassador
• Judith Forrai (born 1949), Hungarian dentist, professor, and medical and science historian
• Judith Furse (1912–1974), English actress
• Judith Godrèche (born 1972), French actress
• Judith Godwin (1930–2021), American abstract painter
• Judith R. Goodstein (born 1939), American mathematics and science historian
• Judith Hand (born 1940), American evolutionary biologist
• Judith Heard (born 1986), Ugandan fashion model
• Judith Heumann (1947–2023), American disability rights activist
• Judith Hill (born 1984), American singer and songwriter
• Judith Hoag (born 1963), American actress
• Judith Holofernes (born 1976), German singer and songwriter
• Judith Ann Carter Horton (1866–1948), African American educator and librarian
• Judith Ivey (born 1951), American actress and theatre director
• Judith Jamison (born 1943), American choreographer and dancer
• Judith Jones (1924–2017), American writer and editor
• Judith Katzir (born 1963), Israeli author
• Judith Kazantzis (1940–2018), English activist and poet
• Judith Keppel (born 1942), English quiz show contestant
• Judith Kerr (1923–2019), German-born British writer and illustrator
• Judith Klinman (born 1941), American biochemist and molecular biologist
• Judith Krantz (1928–2019), American author and journalist
• Judith Lefeber (born 1981), German singer
• Judith Leiber (1921–2018), Hungarian–American businesswoman and fashion designer
• Judith Leyster (1609–1660), Dutch painter
• Judith Liberman (born 1978), French storyteller
• Judith Light (born 1949), American actress
• Judith Livingston (born 1955), American lawyer
• Judith Lorber (born 1931), American sociologist
• Judith Lucy (born 1968), Australian comedian
• Judith Macgregor (born 1952), British diplomat
• Judith Malina (1926–2015), German–born American actress
• Judith Maro (1919–2011), Ukrainian–born Israeli–Welsh writer
• Judith Maxwell (born 1943), Canadian economist and political scientist
• Judith Ann Mayotte (born 1937), American humanitarian, professor and theologian
• Judith McKenna (born 1966), English businesswoman
• Judith Moffett (born 1942), American academic and author
• Judith Neelley (born 1964), American serial killer
• Judith Rakers (born 1976), German journalist and television presenter
• Judith Resnik (1949–1986), American astronaut and engineer
• Judith Roitman (born 1945), American mathematician
• Judith Schmutz (born 1996), Swiss politician
• Judit Selymes (born 1940), Hungarian-American theater director and writer
• Judith Tyberg (1902–1980), American Sanskrit scholar
• Judith Uitermark (born 1971), Dutch politician
• Judith Vanistendael (born 1974), Belgian comics author and illustrator
• Judith Wiesner (born 1966), former professional tennis player from Austria
• Judith Wood (1906–2000), American actress
• Judith Zaffirini, American politician

Fictional characters

• Judith, in the 2008 video game Tales of Vesperia
• Judith Dinsmore, a recurring character in the web series The Most Popular Girls in School
• Judith Grimes, in the TV show and comic The Walking Dead
• Judith "Judy" Hopps, the rabbit protagonist of Disney's 2016 animated film Zootopia
• Judith Iscariot, in the film Monty Python's Life of Brian
• Judith Mossman (Half Life)
• Judith Myers (Halloween), eldest sister of Michael Myers in the 1978 movie Halloween
• Judith Phillips, French name of Jodie Phillips, elder sister of Ellie Phillips in the animated series Fireman Sam
• Judith, the Scourge Diva, a minor character in the popular trading card game
• Judith von Daphnel, a major character in and

See also

• Judah (disambiguation)
• Judith (disambiguation)
• Judy (given name)

Notes and References

1. Web site: Behind the Name - Given Name JUDITH . 2008-05-19 . 2008-05-15 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080515140815/http://www.behindthename.com/name/judith . live .
2. Web site: Behind the Name - Popularity for Judith in the United States . 2008-05-19 . 2007-12-25 . https://web.archive.org/web/20071225233457/http://www.behindthename.com/top/search.php?terms=judith . live .