Origin of the name Gudis

The family name Gudis comes from the name of a maternal ancestor of the family - Hadassah (possible transformation of the sound "h" into Russian "g" and "a" into "u" in Ukrainian dialect of Yiddish).

This female name is encountered already in the TaNaCh. According to the tradition, the Jewish name of queen Esther (a hero of Purim; Esther is a Babylonian name) was Hadassah.

This name is not a very wide-spread one and throughout the ages it occurred in some communities and did not occur in others. Starting from the middle ages (13-14 century) the name Hadassah became used in Austria and then moved to Bohemia and already from there it moved to the East - to Poland.

Gudes is an Yiddish form of this name that was mainly occurring in eastern parts of Poland and in Volyn (an area in Ukraine). So apparently the name Gudes appeared just in these regions. In the end of the 19 - beginning of the 20 century people having this name lived in Berdichev, Rovno, Starokonstantinov.