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Godfrey

#7,846 in 2025Boys' name

Peace of god

Godfrey has been given to 3,245 babies in the U.S. since 1880. In 2025 it ranked #7,846 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1918, with 71 recorded.

Babies named Godfrey, 2025

1 in 332,000

Godfrey over time, 1880–2025

Boys
02040608018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Godfrey: meaning, origin, and history

Peace of god

Germanic languages

What Godfrey means

Godfrey means “peace of god”.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

From Old French Godefrei, from Old High German Godafrid (“peace of God”), from Proto-Germanic *Gudafriþuz. Equivalent to god + frith. Doublet of Gottfried and Geoffrey.

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

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Godfrey is used in English. Its origins include Germanic languages.

Godfrey comes through Old French Godefrei, Old High German Godafrid and Proto-Germanic *Gudafriþuz.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Gottfried and Geoffrey.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Godfrey is pronounced /ˈɡɑdfɹi/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 3,245 boys were recorded with the name Godfrey between 1880 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 71 in 1918; its best national rank was #566 in 1888.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #6,752 in 2020 to #7,846 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #11,152 in 2015 to #7,846 in 2025.

How common is Godfrey?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 332,000
10 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 171,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#7,846
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
229,791 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Godfrey 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 2025 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 229,791 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Godfrey. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Godfreys were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Godfrey was born before 1946 — so the typical Godfrey is around 79 today.

Median birth year
1946
About 79 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
14.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
7.6%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
1,466
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 14.4% of all recorded uses (468).

Is Godfrey 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
+2,392
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−1,094
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
+3,306
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.67×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
14.1%
Peak was 1918 (71)
Years since peak
107
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
31.9% average annual change
Best rank ever
#566
1888

Spellings of Godfrey

Godfrey is not the most common spelling — Geoffrey is, with 94.4% against Godfrey's 5.6%.

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 Godfrey is used

Across 1910–2025, Godfrey was most concentrated in Louisiana — about 1 in 50,000 boys, against 1 in 236,054 across all states with data. It was least common in Virginia (1 in —).

02 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Louisiana1 in 50,000
  2. 2Alabama1 in 100,000
  3. 3Hawaii1 in 100,000
  4. 4New York1 in 100,000
  5. 5California1 in —
  6. 6Florida1 in —
  7. 7Georgia1 in —
  8. 8Illinois1 in —

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. Godfrey has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Godfrey around the world

Where Godfrey 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
    1998–2018
    #4,749
    in 2018
  • Ireland
    1966–1969
    #291
    in 1969
  • France
    2017–2017
    #5,397
    in 2017
  • Canada
    1995–2003
    #2,175
    in 2003
  • South Australia
    1946–2011
    #784
    in 2011

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Godfrey

People whose public names include Godfrey, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Godfrey in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Godfrey. Linked forms have their own page here.

GodofredoGofraidGoffredo

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Godfrey by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#7,846
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 1,094
Best rank ever
#566
1888
Peak year
1918
71 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
3,245
Count in 2025
10

Names similar to Godfrey

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

JacoreyAndreyTorreyGodwinToreyGodricAudreyJeffereyKoreyGodsonGreyShreyDareyAubreyCorreyHumphreyCareyJefreyGareyGeoffreyAundreyCaffreyMontreyGregrey

Names with a curve like Godfrey

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Godfrey, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

LlewellynIvyEnnisThurstonAllisonThorntonJonnieLonzoLambertRexfordGardnerChesley

Sibling names for Godfrey

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 Godfrey

Top names of 1918, Godfrey's peak yearThe 1910s in fullOther names that peaked in 1888Boys' names starting with GMedieval Names