A female name. Hebrew ‘a Jewess’, the name of the Hittite wife of Esau as well as of the slayer of Holofernes. It seems to have been introduced into England by the marriage of Æthelwulf (d. 878) King of Wessex to Judith d. of Charles the Bald. Another early example was Judith Countess of Huntingdon, niece of the Conqueror. It was not, however, until the 17th C that the name became common. The pet-form Judy is now sometimes used as an independent name.

Judita Domesday Book 1086.

F. originally Jehudith, is the f. of Judah and hence of Jude (q. v.), and it ‘belonged primarily to the Hittite wife of Esau,... but its fame is owing to (that) heroine of Bethulia’ who slew Holofernes, the general of Nebuchadnezzar (605-562 B. C.), King of Babylon, and ‘whose name is, however, said rather to mean a Jewess than to be exactly the feminine of Judah. Indeed some commentators, bewildered by the difficulties of chronology, have supposed the history to be a mere allegory in which she represents the Jewish nation’ (Yonge); the Book of Judith appears not to antedate C1 B. C.

The Scripture name, in Hebrew יְהוּדִית, Y’hudhiyth, which Winer translates ‘in the Jewish tongue St. Jerome and Simonis, ‘praised,’ like Judah. Fuerstius, who writes the name Jehudit, translates it ‘eine Judäerin.’ The nicknames are Judy and Ju.

Hebrew (feminine) - Who praises God.

Meaning: Jewish: Jews' language.

A Hebrew name, meaning: Praise of the Lord.