Judd
An English surname that likely began as a short form of the old personal name Jude or Jordan.
The #1,991 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 17,048 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Judd is generally understood as a short form or nickname based on the medieval personal names Jude or Jordan. The surname then developed as a patronymic, originally meaning something like “son of Judd” or “descendant of Judd.” Older sources also connect it with the given name Jude, which itself comes from Latin and ultimately Hebrew roots.
History
The surname is well established in medieval England and appears in many later parish and tax records. Nineteenth-century surname writers particularly associated it with Yorkshire and the Leeds area, and related forms such as Judkin, Judkins, and Judson also developed from the same naming base. It is now found in Britain and the United States, where it remains a relatively uncommon but familiar surname.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Bardsley grouped Judd with a whole family of surnames built from short medieval pet names, alongside forms like Watkin, Wilkin, Simpkin, and Tompkin.
From the historical record
“a favourite it became in England. Every re|is[er has its muster of inslancea. Judd was the nick, (whence Judd, Judde, and Judson, q.v.), and Judkin the dim. alter the prevailing fashion that gave us Watkin, or Wilkin, or Simpkin, or Tompkin (whence Judklni toned”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances