Judith

The name traces to the ancient Hebrew form Yehudit, originally a geographic descriptor denoting an inhabitant of Judea. English translations established the modern spelling during the sixteenth century, though regular domestic use arrived much later. American birth tallies climbed in the early twentieth century before an abrupt wartime surge placed it among the country's ten most common infant names.

A Judith tends to be pictured across a laminate desk with a ceramic mug of sharpened pencils. The name reached seventh place nationwide in 1943, carried by an era that favored clear, unornamented syllables. With an estimated average age of seventy-two today, most living bearers entered adulthood during the rollout of touch-tone dialing. It remains a name largely unacquainted with vanity license plates.