The use of "Jude" in front of an English name.
In genealogy research I came across an ancestor from London, England in the 1600's. The name is Jude Rebecca Marlowe. Is the term Jude a reference to the Jewish religion or is this some variation on Judith? This woman chose names for her children from the Old Testament such as Daniel, Nathaniel, Abraham, Joseph, etc.
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What sort of record did you come across the name in? If it is a regular birth record or marriage record, I would assume that Jude was her first name and probably was a pet form of Judith. Judith has been regularly used as a first name in England since at least 1550 and would not necessarily indicate Jewish ancestry. Neither would the Old Testament names for her sons; they might very well indicate that the family was Puritan, not Jewish.
This message was edited 9/17/2005, 7:03 PM