Judah
given name · Latin script
Meaning: The name Judah comes from the Hebrew name Yehudah (יְהוּדָה), which is derived from a root word meaning "to praise" or "to thank"
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/ˈdʒudə/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Judah is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country.
- USUnited States1 in 15K(measured from records)
- GYGuyana1 in 15K
- PGPapua New Guinea≈1 in 19K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- Sources
- 371 (measured from records)
- 1 in 15K (inferred from the name graph)
21,541 people, 2020
Highest-authority source
Guyana
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
The name Judah comes from the Hebrew name Yehudah (יְהוּדָה), which is derived from a root word meaning "to praise" or "to thank". A traditional explanation for the name is found in Genesis 29:35, where Leah, upon the birth of her fourth son, says, "This time I will praise the LORD," and names him Judah.
Sources 1
- Biblical Names Compiled Database
Attested across 2 languages in the etymology graph.
Often considered alongside
Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Judah, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.
From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Judah counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | — | 21,541 | 1 in 15K | 21K | Judah | 371 |
| NG Nigeria | — | ≈2,400 est. | ≈1 in 89K | — | Judah | 36 |
| KE Kenya | — | ≈890 est. | ≈1 in 60K | — | Judah | 22 |
| ZA South Africa | — | ≈560 est. | ≈1 in 100K | — | Judah | 21 |
| PH Philippines | — | ≈550 est. | ≈1 in 199K | — | Judah | 35 |
| GH Ghana | — | ≈530 est. | ≈1 in 55K | — | Judah | 24 |
| PG Papua New Guinea | — | ≈370 est. | ≈1 in 19K | 8 | — | 5 |
| GY Guyana | #988 | 51 | 1 in 15K | 51 | Judah | 3 |
21,541 people counted by Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex, 2020. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Guyana — Official List of Electors July 2025; PNG Election Results Database — candidate names (1972–2022). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Judah is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
The name Judah, meaning 'praised,' has a rich biblical heritage. While most famously the name of one of Jacob's twelve sons and the ancestor of King David, it was also the name of this Levite who demonstrated repentance and commitment to his community's religious purity during the reforms of Ezra.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
The name Judah is of Hebrew origin and means "praised". It is a name with deep biblical roots, associated with leadership and heritage as the namesake of one of Israel's twelve tribes and the royal lineage of King David and Jesus. It suggests a character of strength, tradition, and nobility.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
This event highlights the critical importance of covenantal faithfulness and religious purity for the post-exilic Jewish community. Judah's participation in the reform signifies the personal and communal repentance required to restore the people's relationship with God after the exile.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
The name Judah, meaning "praised," is a classic biblical name associated with leadership and heritage. It was the name of one of Jacob's twelve sons, who became the ancestor of the most prominent Israelite tribe, from which King David and, in Christian tradition, Jesus descended.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
The name Judah, meaning 'praised,' has ancient roots and belongs to a biblical leader associated with music, thanksgiving, and the joyful restoration of his community. It suggests a character of leadership and gratitude.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Judah ha-Nasib. 135IL2nd century rabbi and editor of the Mishnah
- Judah Maccabeeb. 500IL2nd century BCE Jewish priest and leader of Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucids
- Avicebronb. 1021ESnot in their usual name11th-century Andalusian poet and Jewish philosopher
- Yehuda Halevib. 1075ESnot in their usual nameSpanish-Jewish philosopher, poet and physician (c.1075–1141)
- Judah Philip Benjaminb. 1811USAmerican politician and lawyer (1811-1884)
- Judah Leon Magnesb. 1877USAmerican rabbi (1877-1948)
- Judah Folkmanb. 1933USAmerican biologist (1933–2008)
- Judah Friedlanderb. 1969USAmerican actor and comedian
- Morgenshternb. 1998RUnot in their usual nameRussian-born Israeli rapper, singer-songwriter and record producer
- Judah Lewisb. 2001USAmerican actor
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 59 sources across 32 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 21K | #1,530 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 2K | — |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 564 | #1,530 |
| GY Guyana | Guyana — Official List of Electors July 2025 | 2025 | 51 | #543 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 41 | — |
| PG Papua New Guinea | PNG Election Results Database — candidate names (1972–2022) | — | 8 | #90 |
Reference works 5
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Judah a male or female name?
- Judah is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- What are other forms of the name Judah?
- In the etymology graph, Jude, Yehuda and Juda are forms of the same name in other languages.
- What does the name Judah mean, and where does it come from?
- The name Judah comes from the Hebrew name Yehudah (יְהוּדָה), which is derived from a root word meaning "to praise" or "to thank". Recorded by Biblical Names Compiled Database.
- How do you pronounce Judah?
- A machine transcription gives /ˈdʒudə/ (IPA) for English.
- In which country does Judah have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 22 thousand people named Judah, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled judah.
- Where is Judah most common?
- Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Judah is densest in Guyana — about 1 in 15 thousand people — even though United States holds more of our records for it.
- How common is the name Judah?
- In the United States, the national register counted 21,541 people named Judah in 2020, about 1 in 15 thousand residents.
- How common is Judah compared with other names?
- In Guyana, Judah is the 988th most common given name of 15,440 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Judah?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/judahThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Judah” — the 988th most common given name in Guyana. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.