Her birth name was Golda Mabovitch (). She was born in Kiev in the former Russian Empire (today Ukraine), and her parents were Blume Naidich and Moshe Mabovitch, a carpenter. The family moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the United States. Her father found a job as a carpenter, and her mother ran a grocery store. At the age of eight, she was already put in charge of watching the store when her mother went to the market for supplies. 