This interesting name, with English variant forms Judd and Judas, and Hebrew cognates Yuda, Yuditzki etc., has three possible origins. Firstly, it may derive from the Medieval English vernacular form of the Hebrew male given name Yehuda (Judah), the name of Jacob's eldest son. Secondly, the name may come from the Old French "Jude", (Hebrew "Yehudi"), a name for a member of the tribe of Judah, and thirdly, Jude was frequently used as a pet form of the personal name Jordan (from the Hebrew Yarad, to go down or descend i.e. to the Dead Sea). The last mentioned name was given especially to crusaders children in commemoration of their fathers journey to the River Jordan. One, Hugo filius (son of) Jude was recorded in the 1193 "Pipe Rolls of Lincolnshire". Early recordings of the surname include: Herueus Judas - "The Pipe Rolls of Cambridgshire", (1191), and Simon Jude or Judde - the 1327 Elizabeth Jude and Wiliam Williams were married in St. Bride's, Fleet Street, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William Jude, which was dated 1211 - "The Curia Regis Rolls of Devonshire", during the reign of King John, "Known as Lackland", 1199 - 1216. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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