Judith (given name)

Judith
Pronunciation	dʒu-dɪθ
Gender	Female
Language(s)	Hebrew
Name day	celebrated on the day of St. Judith
Origin
Word/name	Hebrew
Meaning	"praised" or "Woman of Judea"
Region of origin	Hebrew
Other names
Alternative spelling	Ditte (Danish), Ditka (Slovene), and Giuditta (Italian)
Nickname(s)	Judy or Judi; Jody
Related names	Judy, Judah
Popularity	see popular names

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.^[2] 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.^[3]

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)
Јудита Judita (Serbian)
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 Bowman, American author and businesswoman
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 Kent (born 1956), American business executive and philanthropist
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 Nicosia, American soprano
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 (Yehudit) Weinstock (born 1940), Israeli author
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 Magic: the Gathering
Judith Shakespeare, the hypothetical sister of English playwright and poet William Shakespeare, invented by English writer Virginia Woolf in order to illustrate historical (and persisting) inequalities in the treatment of the sexes as well as the implications of this unequal treatment for art and wider culture. The 1985 rockabilly song "Shakespeare's Sister" by the English rock band The Smiths, and in turn the Irish pop rock duo Shakespears Sister [sic], were named with reference to this character of Woolf’s. The real-life younger daughter of William Shakespeare was also named Judith
Judith von Daphnel, a major character in Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes

Notes

^ Judith – Meaning and origin of the name Judith
^ "Behind the Name - Given Name JUDITH". Archived from the original on 2008-05-15. Retrieved 2008-05-19.
^ "Behind the Name - Popularity for Judith in the United States". Archived from the original on 2007-12-25. Retrieved 2008-05-19.

This page or section lists people that share the same given name.
If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change that link to point directly to the intended article.

[1] Judith – Meaning and origin of the name Judith

[2] "Behind the Name - Given Name JUDITH". Archived from the original on 2008-05-15. Retrieved 2008-05-19.

[3] "Behind the Name - Popularity for Judith in the United States". Archived from the original on 2007-12-25. Retrieved 2008-05-19.

[1]

[2]

[3]

Name variants

People

Fictional characters

See also

Notes