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Judah

Boy name · 30 babies recorded · 1974–2025

Judah: 30 babies born in Scotland since 1974, given to boys, peaking at 8 births in 2025.

Judah, a name of Hebrew origin, comes from the biblical Yehudah, meaning “praise” or “thanks,” and first appears as the fourth son of Jacob and Leah in the Old Testament. Among its most famous bearers is Judah Maccabee, the heroic leader of the Jewish revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd century BC, whose story is celebrated at Hanukkah. The name also calls to mind the ancient Kingdom of Judah, a region in the southern Levant that gives its name to the modern Judean hills. While Judah is a direct English form of the original, its variant Judas has a more negative association due to the betrayer of Jesus, but Judah itself remains a strong, positive choice, especially in families with a religious or cultural connection to the Hebrew scriptures.