Judi
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "praised" or "praised one".
Name Census estimates that about 6,875 living Americans carry the first name Judi. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Judi today is around 66 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Judi births was 1947 (607 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Judi. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Judi with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Judi is about 66 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Judis were born before 1970.
People living today
6.9K
~ 1 in 49,855 Americans
Peak year
1947
607 babies that year
Average age
66
years old
2024 SSA rank
#11,550
Tracked since 1930
Census
Judi in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 9,255 people with the first name Judi, which placed it at #2,594 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
#2,594
National first-name rank
People counted
9.3K
9,255 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
89.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Judi
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Judi is White at 89.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (3.7%) and Black (2.4%). 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 Judi 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 Judi at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White89.2% · 8,252
- Hispanic or Latino3.7% · 346
- Black or African American2.4% · 221
- Two or more races2.2% · 203
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.0% · 185
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 48
Popularity
Judi: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Judi from the 1930s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 3,940 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Judi 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 Judi during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Judis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 43 states and territories. California, New York, Illinois recorded the most babies named Judi, while Vermont, South Dakota, Rhode Island recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 179 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Judi
The name Judi is a variant of the Hebrew name Judith, which means "woman from Judea" or "praised." Judith was a renowned biblical figure, celebrated for her courage and faith in saving the Israelites from the Assyrians. The Book of Judith, part of the Septuagint and the Vulgate, recounts her story.
The name Judi likely emerged as a shortened form of Judith during the Middle Ages, when variations of traditional names became more common. It may have originated in regions where Hebrew and Arabic cultures intersected, such as the Iberian Peninsula or parts of the Mediterranean.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Judi can be found in the 13th-century Hebrew text, the Zohar, where a Kabbalistic figure named Judi is mentioned. In the 16th century, a Jewish woman named Judi da Costa lived in Portugal during the Inquisition period.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Judi. In the 11th century, Judi ben Sheshet was a renowned Spanish rabbi and scholar. In the 15th century, Judi Farissol was a Jewish philosopher and physician in Italy.
During the Renaissance, Judi Nasco was a renowned Italian painter active in the late 16th century. In the 17th century, Judi Levi Modena was a prominent Jewish poet and scholar in Italy.
In more recent times, Judi Dench, born in 1934, is a highly acclaimed British actress known for her roles in various Shakespeare productions and iconic films like "Shakespeare in Love" and the James Bond series.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Judi
People
Judi + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Judi 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
Judi: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Judi?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 6,875 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Judi 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 49,855 US residents.
Is Judi a common name?
We classify Judi as "Rare". It ranks above 97.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 10,341 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Judi most popular?
The single biggest year for Judi was 1947, when 607 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Judi is about 66 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Judi in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 9,255 people with the name Judi, or 3.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,594 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 Judi 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 Judi?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Judi appears almost entirely female. Of the 9,259 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Judi?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Judi is White at 89.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (3.7%) and Black (2.4%). 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 Judi most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Judi in the 2020 Census, accounting for 89.2% (8,252 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 Judi in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Judi a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Judi in the SSA data are female. 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 Judi still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Judi 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 Judi 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 have the name Judi?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.