Thursday, February 11, 2016

Little Judas

Jude. It's a great name! It's been pretty popular lately, being in the top 200 for US boys for the past several years. It's delightfully short, easy to pronounce, easy to spell, and comes from the Bible. Judas was one of Jesus' brothers (biological son of Joseph and Mary - a "real" brother).

Wait - Judas?! Yes indeed, our dear friend Jude is actually Judas. Not Judas Iscariot, but Judas nonetheless. It was a popular name back then, too, thanks to the Hebrew forefather, Judah. In the Greek New Testament, there is no Jude or Judah, just Judas. In English, we like to have the good Judas distinguished from the bad Judas, so the former goes by his nickname.

Oh, if you're interested in the stats, Judas is ranked in about 5,000th place for popularity.

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