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JUDITH
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Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Jewish, French, German, Spanish, Biblical
Pronounced: JOO-dith (English), zhoo-DEET (French), YOO-dit (German) [key]
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From the Hebrew name יְהוּדִית (Yehudit) meaning "woman from Judea", Judea being an ancient region in Israel. In the Old Testament Judith was one of the wives of Esau. This was 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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