Behind the Name: Meaning, Origin and History of the Name Judith

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JUDITH

GENDER: Feminine

USAGE: English, Jewish, French, German, Spanish, Biblical

OTHER SCRIPTS: יְהוּדִית (Hebrew)

PRONOUNCED: JOO-dith (English), zhoo-DEET (French), YOO-dit (German) [key]

Meaning & History

From the Hebrew name יְהוּדִית (Yehudit) meaning "woman from Judea", Judea being an ancient region in Israel. In the Old Testament, Judith is one of the wives of Esau. This is also the name of the main character of the apocryphal Book of Judith who kills Holofernes, an invading Assyrian commander, by beheading him in his sleep. As an English name, though there are a handful of early examples during the Middle Ages, it did not become common until after the Protestant Reformation.

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VARIANTS: Yehudit (Hebrew), Hudes (Yiddish), Jutta, Jutte (German), Judit (Spanish)

DIMINUTIVES: Judi, Judie, Judy, Jodene, Jodi, Jodie, Jody (English), Yutke (Yiddish)

OTHER LANGUAGES: Ioudith (Biblical Greek), Yehudit (Biblical Hebrew), Iudith (Biblical Latin), Judita, Jitka (Czech), Judit, Jytte (Danish), Judit (Hungarian), Giuditta (Italian), Judit (Norwegian), Judyta (Polish), Judite (Portuguese), Judita (Slovak), Judit (Swedish)

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