Juda
Masculine name of Hebrew derivation conveying "praised" or "he will be praised".
Name Census estimates that about 437 living Americans carry the first name Juda. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 69.4% of registrations being male. The average person named Juda today is around 26 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Juda births was 2022 (27 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Juda. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • Juda was once a predominantly female name but has become increasingly popular for boys in recent decades.
People living today
437
~ 1 in 784,335 Americans
Peak year
2022
27 babies that year
Average age
26
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,128
Tracked since 1894
Census
Juda in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 776 people with the first name Juda, which placed it at #14,967 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#14,967
National first-name rank
People counted
776
776 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
56.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Juda
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Juda is White at 56.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (22.4%) and Black (10.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Juda described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Juda at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White56.4% · 438
- Hispanic or Latino22.4% · 174
- Black or African American10.4% · 81
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.7% · 44
- Two or more races4.4% · 34
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 5
Gender
Gender distribution for Juda
Juda is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 529 total registrations, 367 (69.4%) were male and 162 (30.6%) were female.
Juda as a male name
- Ranked #5,128 in 2024
- 19 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (21 births)
Juda as a female name
- Ranked #14,382 in 2022
- 6 female births in 2022
- Peak: 1943 (17 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Juda on both sides of the split. Of the 769 people counted with this name, 498 were male (64.8%) and 271 were female (35.2%).
Popularity
Juda: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Juda from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 135 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Juda remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Juda by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Juda during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Judas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Juda
The name Juda has its origins in the Hebrew language and culture, with roots dating back to ancient times. It is derived from the Hebrew word "Yehudah," which means "praised" or "thanksgiving." The name is closely associated with the biblical figure Judah, one of the twelve sons of Jacob and the ancestor of one of the tribes of Israel.
In the Old Testament, Judah played a significant role as the progenitor of the royal lineage of King David and, ultimately, Jesus Christ. The name is mentioned numerous times in the Bible, particularly in the Book of Genesis, where Judah's story unfolds. It also appears in various other biblical texts, such as the Book of Ruth and the Book of Chronicles.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Juda dates back to the 11th century BC, when it was borne by Judah, the son of Jacob and Leah. Throughout history, several notable individuals have carried the name Juda or variations of it.
In the 1st century AD, Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus, was infamously known for betraying him, leading to his crucifixion. Despite the negative connotation, the name Judas has its roots in Judah and was relatively common during that time period.
Another prominent figure was Judah Halevi (c. 1075-1141), a celebrated Spanish Jewish philosopher, poet, and physician, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest Hebrew poets of the Middle Ages.
During the Renaissance, Juda Abravanel (1460-1521), a Portuguese Jewish philosopher and theologian, gained recognition for his contributions to Jewish thought and his defense of Judaism against Christian polemics.
In the 17th century, Judah Leon Abravanel (1603-1683), a Jewish scholar and merchant from Portugal, played a significant role in the development of the Jewish community in the Netherlands.
More recently, Judah Philip Benjamin (1811-1884), an American lawyer and politician, served as the Attorney General, Secretary of War, and Secretary of State for the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War.
These are just a few examples of individuals who have borne the name Juda throughout history, highlighting its rich cultural and religious significance across various eras and regions.
People
Juda + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Juda as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with J
Other first names starting with J with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Juda: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Juda?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 437 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Juda going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 784,335 US residents.
Is Juda a common name?
We classify Juda as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 529 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Juda most popular?
The single biggest year for Juda was 2022, when 27 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Juda is about 26 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Juda in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 776 people with the name Juda, or 0.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,967 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Juda in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Juda?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Juda on both sides of the split. Of the 769 people counted with this name, 498 were male (64.8%) and 271 were female (35.2%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Juda?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Juda is White at 56.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (22.4%) and Black (10.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Juda most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Juda in the 2020 Census, accounting for 56.4% (438 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Juda in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Juda a male name?
Yes, 69.4% of people registered as Juda in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Juda still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Juda in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Juda can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Juda?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.