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Ferdie

Boys' name

Diminutive of Ferdinand

Ferdie has been given to 233 babies in the U.S. since 1894. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1921, with 14 recorded.

Babies named Ferdie, 1963

1 in 792,000

Ferdie over time, 1880–2025

Boys
05101518801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Ferdie: meaning, origin, and history

Diminutive of Ferdinand

English and Spanish

What Ferdie means

Ferdie is a diminutive of Ferdinand.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Ferdie is used in English.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈfɜɹ.di/ and /ˈfɜː.di/ for Ferdie.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Ferdie → Ferdinand. The family’s meaning is “journey + daring”, recorded in English with the source elements fardiz and nanþaz.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

From Ferdinand + -ie, with the root itself from Spanish Ferdinando.

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Ferdie (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Ferdie is used in English and Tagalog. Its origins include English and Spanish.

Ferdie comes through Spanish Ferdinando.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Ferdinand.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Tagalog, Ferdie is pronounced /ˈfeɾdi/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 233 boys were recorded with the name Ferdie between 1894 and 1963. Its highest annual count was 14 in 1921; its best national rank was #1,138 in 1894.

How common is Ferdie?

Ferdie had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1963, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1963
1 in 792,000
5 of 3,958,455 births
Among boys only
1 in 406,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 1963
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
548,760 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Ferdie sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 1963 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 548,760 children born in 1963 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Ferdie. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Ferdies were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Ferdie was born before 1928 — so the typical Ferdie is around 97 today.

Median birth year
1928
About 97 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
32.2% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
18.9%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
15
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 32.2% of all recorded uses (75).

Is Ferdie rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1921 (14)
Years since peak
104
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
17.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,138
1894

Spellings of Ferdie

Ferdie is not the most common spelling — Eddie is, with 64.2% against Ferdie's 0.07%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Ferdie is used

Across 1910–2025, Ferdie was most concentrated in Louisiana — about 1 in 100,000 boys, against 1 in 74,874 across all states with data.

11 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Louisiana1 in 100,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Ferdie has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Ferdie around the world

Where Ferdie ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2005–2013
    #4,685
    in 2013

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0.

Ferdie by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#1,138
1894
Peak year
1921
14 that year
First recorded
1894
Last recorded
1963
All-time count
233
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Ferdie

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

FerranFergusGordieFermonFerlinFerasFernieFerrelFermanFergusonFerronAndieIndieFernanFernadoFerrisVerdieBradieBohdieRoddieCordieGeordieJordieBowdie

Sibling names for Ferdie

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Ferdie

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