take up for

Support in an argument, as in To our surprise her father took up for her fiancé. [Second half of 1800s]

To support (a person or group, for example) in an argument.

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Howell	-	Welsh
Ganesh	-	Indian, Hindi, Marathi, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Bengali, Nepali
Andris	-	Latvian, Hungarian
Olivia	['ɔliviə]
Aila	-	Finnish
Pua	-	Hawaiian