Judith is from the Hebrew *Yehudit* (יְהוּדִית) — "woman of Judea, praised." **The biblical Judith — heroine of the deuterocanonical *Book of Judith* (c. 100 BCE), a beautiful widow of Bethulia who entered the camp of the besieging Assyrian general Holofernes, gained his trust, and beheaded him with his own sword while he slept drunk — saving the Israelite city**. **The scene of Judith with the severed head became one of the most-painted subjects of the Italian and Dutch Renaissance — by Caravaggio (1599), Artemisia Gentileschi (1612-13, twice), Cristofano Allori, Donatello, Giorgione, Botticelli, Klimt (1901), and Gustav Klimt's *Judith II* (1909)**. **A top-50 US baby name from 1936 to 1949, peaking at #32 in 1940**. **Judith Butler (born 1956)** — American philosopher; *Gender Trouble* (1990). **Judith Sheindlin** — "Judge Judy." **Judith Jamison (1943-2024)** — Alvin Ailey artistic director.
Subject of countless biblical commentaries and Mary D. Garrard's *Artemisia Gentileschi* (1989).
Judith reduces to eight — the number of Bethulia's defender.