What do you think of the name Jude?

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columbkille77

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My wife wants to name our son this. My parents are concerned that it has negative connotations: hopelessness, cancer (b/c of the hospital), the holocaust (Jude was what used on the yellow stars in Germany) and generally that it is frequently used in culture as a sad, negative name (e.g., Jude the Obscure by Tom Hardy). It is a name that has been fraught throughout history for various reasons – it was initially derived from Judas (Jude was introduced in English and French in the middle ages to distinguish Judas Thaddeus from Judas Iscariot).

I have a great respect for St. Jude (Judas Thaddeus) and the name has other positive secular connotations, such as the Beatles song and the actor Jude Law. But I don’t want to make our son’s more life more difficult if a certain percentage of society will have an instinctive, if unfair, negative reaction and we could easily avoid that by choosing a more traditional name (e.g., Matthew, John, Thomas).

I am particularly concerned about international travel, if our son were to go to a country with a lot of anti-semitism (which is sadly rising everywhere it seems) or somewhere where they do not distinguish between the names Jude and Judas and would mistakenly think we named our child after Judas Iscariot.

I want to do the best for our son but am wondering if I am overthinking this. We have asked various people (mostly secular) and most of the responses have been positive, but sometimes your friends just tell you what they think you want to hear to make you feel better, so I would like some objective opinions from CAFfers.
 
I think its a fine name. I have a student named Jude and he is very cheerful and popular with the other kids.
 
I like it. Don’t let the possible ignorance of other people change your mind. Nobody says Jude law was named after Judas Iscariot, or a hospital.

Incidentally, If I had a son, I would be tempted to name him after Judas Maccabeus, but then he’d have to spend the rest of his life saying “No, not that Judas, the other Judas”, or get it tattooed on his forehead.
 
I like it! It actually made my short list for boys, we just didn’t have any more boys 😉
 
I think it’s a nice name, I’ve never thought of the negative connotations thinking of it, I’ve always thought of St. Jude or the Beatles, and after all what’s wrong with St. Jude’s hospital? The founder named it for Saint Jude, in his honor, that hospital is a great example of what the saints can do in our lives. ;)😃
 
What about Jude as the middle name instead?

Just a thought.
 
Nuts to everybody else.

Jude is the title of a book in the Bible!

Go for it. 🙂

ICXC NIKA
 
Jude is a beautiful name, He is an extraordinary saint. Your child would be blessed to have such a special name. God bless you.
 
Don_Ruggero said:
Jude is a beautiful name, He is an extraordinary saint. Your child would be blessed to have such a special name. God bless you.
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I agree!

St. Jude is one of the saints that I turn to, for help and intercession.

If you want to choose it as a name for your son, I think that you should go ahead and choose it. 🙂
 
It’s a beautiful name.
There are so many non-saint names that are just ridiculous. If people want to mock someone for their name, I’ll guarantee that there will be others in his school with a crazy name.
Be at peace, and congratulations on the child!
 
I actually love it. Go for it. I don’t think many others will find a negative connotations at all.
 
I don’t think the majority of folks will see the connections you are being warned against. As a lover of St. Jude, I never would.

I myself have suggested to my wife choosing Thaddeus as a middle name in his honor. I love the ring it has personally “Michael Thaddeus, William Thaddeus,” and I am a sucker for greek/roman sounding middle names like James Tiberius Kirk.
 
Maximilan_Kolbe said:
I don’t think the majority of folks will see the connections you are being warned against. As a lover of St. Jude, I never would.

I myself have suggested to my wife choosing Thaddeus as a middle name in his honor. I love the ring it has personally “Michael Thaddeus, William Thaddeus,” and** I am a sucker for greek/roman sounding middle names like James Tiberius Kirk.**
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Funny!

To the OP, I don’t think any of the issues you raise are huge. I have a baby cousin with the name, and the only real negative I can think of is that the name may be on the verge of going “trendy,” so don’t choose it in the expectation that it is going to be unique.

I chose my oldest’s name partly in the belief that it was unusual, only to see it go trendy. Everybody seems to get the same idea at the same time…
 
One of my son’s name is Jude. 🙂 We named him after St. Jude. People mostly start singing the Beatles song around him. The most negative thing we experience is that sometimes people think it’s a girl’s name, probably because Martha Stewart’s daughter named her daughter Jude and so there are some girls now named Jude as well, which is annoying.
 
My niece’s middle name is Jude: Angelina Jude! She was a miracle in answer to a hopeless case (just as her mom, my sister! 👍)
 
Yes, you are overthinking it. 😉

I agree with the others. It’s a great name. I’ve never had any such negative connotations with the name.
 
eatpraylove11 said:
What about Jude as the middle name instead?

Just a thought.
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👍

Middles names are great! The concerns about how people perceive the name is far less with middle names. Personally, I like longer first names with short middle names. With only one syllable, “Jude” sounds to me like a better middle name than a first name. Plus, J makes a great the middle initial!

The op should keep in mind that we don’t know his last name. How a name sounds with the last name–or if the initials will spell anything–makes a difference that people may sometimes overlook when selecting baby names. There are numerous one syllable words that start with J, so see how the initials go together. (ie: Jude Edward Thompson = JET ; Jude Ivan Peterson= JIP, etc…)
 
I love the name. My littlest’s middle name is Jude.

And you already have a lullaby to sing softly, the Beatles’ Hey Jude! Just sing it very softly and slower.
 
OP here. The debate basically is whether to swap our son’s first and middle names. (He actually already arrived and is a few days old.) His current middle name is one of those more traditional ones I mentioned.

My last name is Eastern European (which my mom thinks may make it more likely that people associate the name with Judaism / the Holocaust). It’s not a traditionally Jewish last name though, at least to my knowledgeable.
 
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