Judean
From the ancient region of Judea in Israel, indicating Jewish heritage.
Name Census estimates that about 16 living Americans carry the first name Judean. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Judean today is around 70 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Judean births was 1964 (7 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Judean. 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
- • The typical person named Judean is about 70 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Judeans were born before 1966.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Judean. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
16
~ 1 in 21,422,146 Americans
Peak year
1964
7 babies that year
Average age
70
years old
1964 SSA rank
#5,710
Tracked since 1944
Census
Judean in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 114 people with the first name Judean, which placed it at #51,355 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
#51,355
National first-name rank
People counted
114
114 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
57.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Judean
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Judean is White at 57.0%. The next largest groups are Black (28.1%) and Two or More Races (7.0%). 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 Judean 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 Judean at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White57.0% · 65
- Black or African American28.1% · 32
- Two or more races7.0% · 8
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.4% · 5
- Hispanic or Latino2.6% · 3
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 1
Popularity
Judean: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Judean from the 1940s through to the 1960s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 12 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1940s peak, Judean remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Judean 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 Judean during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Judean
The given name Judean has its origins in the ancient Hebrew language and culture, dating back to biblical times in the region of Judea, which was situated in the southern part of the historic Land of Israel. The name is believed to be derived from the Hebrew word "Yehudi," meaning "Jewish" or "from Judah," referring to the ancient Kingdom of Judah and its inhabitants.
Judean is closely associated with the biblical figure Judah, one of the twelve sons of Jacob and the patriarch of the Tribe of Judah. The name is mentioned multiple times in religious scriptures such as the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament, reflecting its deep-rooted significance in Judeo-Christian traditions.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Judean can be found in the biblical Book of Genesis, where Judah, the son of Jacob and Leah, is introduced as a prominent figure in the narrative. The name subsequently appears in various other books of the Bible, including the Book of Ruth and the Book of Ezra.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Judean or its variants. One of the most famous was Judean the Maccabee (c. 166 BCE), a Jewish priest and military leader who led a rebellion against the Seleucid Empire, which had sought to impose its Hellenistic culture on the Jewish population in Judea.
Another prominent figure was Judean ben Saul (c. 135 CE), a Jewish sage and scholar who lived during the Roman period and is renowned for his contributions to the development of Rabbinic Judaism. He is often referred to as Rabbi Judean HaNasi, meaning "Judean the Prince."
In the medieval period, Judean ben Samuel He-Hasid (c. 1140 - 1217) was a prominent Jewish philosopher and mystic, known for his influential works on Kabbalah and ethical teachings. He was born in Toledo, Spain, and is considered one of the most significant figures in the history of Jewish mysticism.
During the Renaissance, Judean Abravanel (1437 - 1508) was a Portuguese Jewish philosopher, theologian, and financier who served as a statesman and advisor to several European monarchs, including King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile.
In more recent times, Judean Hirsch Kalischer (1796 - 1874) was a prominent Jewish scholar and one of the early proponents of the Zionist movement, advocating for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in the Land of Israel.
These are just a few examples of individuals who have carried the name Judean throughout history, reflecting its rich cultural and religious significance within the Jewish tradition and beyond.
People
Judean + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Judean 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
Judean: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Judean?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 16 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Judean 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 21,422,146 US residents.
Is Judean a common name?
We classify Judean as "Very Rare". It ranks above 36.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 25 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Judean most popular?
The single biggest year for Judean was 1964, when 7 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Judean is about 70 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Judean in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 114 people with the name Judean, or 0.04 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #51,355 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 Judean 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 Judean?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Judean leans strongly female. 104 people counted with this name were female (89.7%), compared with 12 male bearers (10.3%). 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 Judean?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Judean is White at 57.0%. The next largest groups are Black (28.1%) and Two or More Races (7.0%). 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 Judean most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Judean in the 2020 Census, accounting for 57.0% (65 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 Judean in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Judean a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Judean 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 Judean still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Judean 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 Judean 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 share the name Judean?
Find out how many Americans are named Judean on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.