Name Awesome

Rod

Boys' name

Fame

Rod has been given to 8,744 babies in the U.S. since 1910. 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 1960, with 496 recorded.

Babies named Rod, 2023

1 in 474,000

Rod over time, 1880–2025

Boys
020040060018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Rod: meaning, origin, and history

Fame

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Rod means

Rod means “fame”, associated with hrōþiz.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

Abbreviated form of Rodney and of Roderick, both with roots originating from Germanic *hrōþiz (“fame”).

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

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Rod is used in English.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Rodney.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 8,744 boys were recorded with the name Rod between 1910 and 2023. Its highest annual count was 496 in 1960; its best national rank was #344 in 1965.

How common is Rod?

Rod had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2023, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2023
1 in 474,000
7 of 3,314,783 births
Among boys only
1 in 244,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2023
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
328,234 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Rod 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 2023 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 328,234 children born in 2023 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Rod. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Rods were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Rod was born before 1962 — so the typical Rod is around 63 today.

Median birth year
1962
About 63 years old
Biggest decade
1960s
42.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
2.2%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
7,418
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1960s — 42.8% of all recorded uses (3,746).

Is Rod 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 1960 (496)
Years since peak
65
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
27.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#344
1965

Where Rod is used

Across 1910–2025, Rod was most concentrated in Oregon — about 1 in 6,667 boys, against 1 in 26,358 across all states with data. It was least common in West Virginia (1 in —).

015 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Oregon1 in 6,667
  2. 2Washington1 in 6,667
  3. 3California1 in 11,111
  4. 4Idaho1 in 11,111
  5. 5Montana1 in 11,111
  6. 6Iowa1 in 12,500
  7. 7Michigan1 in 14,286
  8. 8Nebraska1 in 14,286

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

Rod around the world

Where Rod 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
    1996–1996
    #2,863
    in 1996
  • Ireland
    1992–1992
    #337
    in 1992
  • France
    1976–2001
    #4,530
    in 2001
  • Canada
    1997–2024
    #3,231
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1969–1982
    #424
    in 1982

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 Rod

People whose public names include Rod, 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.

Rod in other languages

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

RoddRodyRodneyRodrick

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

Rod 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
#344
1965
Peak year
1960
496 that year
First recorded
1910
Last recorded
2023
All-time count
8,744
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Rod

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

RoddyRodrickJarodJerodRodgerJerrodRodyRodrigoRodericRodolfoRoddJarrodRodmanSharodRoderickRodneyRodellRodriquezRodricRoddieSherrodRodgersRodelGerrod

Names with a curve like Rod

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

RussChuckRichDougTimmieBartDinoCurtLesLonnyKenMonty

Sibling names for Rod

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 Rod

Top names of 1960, Rod's peak yearThe 1960s in fullOther names that peaked in 1965Boys' names starting with R