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Woody

#8,216 in 2025Boys' name

Diminutive of Woodrow

Woody has been given to 4,246 babies in the U.S. since 1882. In 2025 it ranked #8,216 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1946, with 116 recorded.

Babies named Woody, 2025

1 in 332,000

Woody over time, 1880–2025

BoysGirls
05010015018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Woody: meaning, origin, and history

Diminutive of Woodrow

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Woody means

Woody is a diminutive of Woodrow.

Origin, language, and formation

Woody is used in English.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Woodrow.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Woody is pronounced /ˈwʊdi/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 4,236 boys were recorded with the name Woody between 1882 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 116 in 1946; its best national rank was #600 in 1944.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #8,018 in 2020 to #8,216 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #12,023 in 2015 to #8,216 in 2025.

In the United States, 10 girls were recorded with the name Woody between 1937 and 1948. Its highest annual count was 5 in 1937; its best national rank was #4,916 in 1937.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Woody?

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
#8,216
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
229,791 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Woody 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 Woody. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Woodys were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Woody was born before 1955 — so the typical Woody is around 70 today.

Median birth year
1955
About 70 years old
Biggest decade
1940s
21.5% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
5.6%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
2,611
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1940s — 21.5% of all recorded uses (910).

Is Woody 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
−491
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−198
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
+3,807
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.67×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
8.6%
Peak was 1946 (116)
Years since peak
79
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
34.9% average annual change
Best rank ever
#600
1944

Spellings of Woody

Woody is not the most common spelling — Cody is, with 64.6% against Woody's 0.94%.

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 Woody is used

Across 1910–2025, Woody was most concentrated in North Carolina — about 1 in 25,000 boys, against 1 in 89,584 across all states with data. It was least common in West Virginia (1 in —).

04 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1North Carolina1 in 25,000
  2. 2Texas1 in 33,333
  3. 3Arkansas1 in 50,000
  4. 4Kentucky1 in 50,000
  5. 5Oklahoma1 in 50,000
  6. 6Tennessee1 in 50,000
  7. 7Alabama1 in 100,000
  8. 8California1 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. Woody has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Woody around the world

Where Woody 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
    1999–2025
    #396
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    2005–2025
    #762
    in 2025
  • Northern Ireland
    2014–2014
    #398
    in 2014
  • Ireland
    2016–2021
    #631
    in 2021
  • France
    1983–2024
    #6,252
    in 2024
  • Canada
    1997–2022
    #2,602
    in 2022
  • South Australia
    1983–1998
    #534
    in 1998

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS, NISRA 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 Woody

People whose public names include Woody, 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.

Woody in other languages

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

WoodieWoodrow

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

Woody by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#8,216
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 198
Best rank ever
#600
1944
Peak year
1946
116 that year
First recorded
1882
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
4,236
Count in 2025
10

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#4,916
1937
Peak year
1937
5 that year
First recorded
1937
Last recorded
1948
All-time count
10
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Woody

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

WoodsWoodsonWoodieWoodWoodrowKodyJodyWoodleyBrodyMoodyWoodfordRodyWoodroeWoodardRhodyCodyMelodyWoodwardWoojuWoodlandWoodruffWoodfinJacodyWoojin

Names with a curve like Woody

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

GaylonSharonDennieMelLeighDouglassPatriciaCurtissWindellLindellWallyVernell

Sibling names for Woody

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 Woody

Top names of 1946, Woody's peak yearThe 1940s in fullOther names that peaked in 1944Boys' names starting with W