Bode
Masculine · “messenger' in the Germanic line”
Bode has been a surname in northern Germany and the Low Countries for centuries, built on an old word for a messenger. In American mouths it lands in two beats — BOH-dee — sharing its bright ending with Cody and Brody, and it folds down to Bo without effort. Its life as a first name here is recent, and it came in through the surname rather than through any long English tradition.
How old is the name Bode?
Bode first appears in US birth records in 1998 — 27 years ago. The typical Bode is a kid of about 9 — this name's wave is very recent. About 4,700 people named Bode are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Bode most popular?
Bode peaked in 2025, reaching #748 nationally. Today it ranks #748, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Bodo (medieval Germanic given name) to Bode
The story of Bode
The word behind it is Middle Low German bode, a messenger or herald, a cousin of German Bote and of the English 'bid'. It served as a personal name in medieval Germany in the form Bodo and hardened into the family name Bode, which German and Dutch immigrants carried to the United States through the nineteenth century. Like Cooper, Sawyer and many others, it made the jump from surname to first name late, appearing on American birth records only in the closing years of the twentieth century — the same stretch in which the alpine ski racer Bode Miller, whose Olympic career began in the late 1990s, became a household name in the sport. It has held a modest, steady place ever since rather than spiking and vanishing.
Meaningscholars disagree
'messenger' in the Germanic line
Two roads meet at this spelling. The Germanic one is well documented: Middle Low German and Old Saxon bode, 'messenger, herald', which also gave the medieval German given name Bodo and the family name Bode still common in northern Germany and the Netherlands. The American given name, though, arrived as a surname put to first-name use, alongside the ordinary English verb bode — so no single translation fully covers how it is used here.
How the name formed
- Bodomedieval Germanic given name
- bodeMiddle Low German, 'messenger'
- BodeGerman and Dutch surname
- BodeAmerican given name
Related forms: Bodo · Bode · Bode · Boto
Pronouncing Bode
BOH-dee
Two syllables, stress on the first, ending in the vowel of 'happy'. Written down, it is often read as one syllable — BOHD, like 'it bodes well' — so expect to correct that on first meeting. The German surname is said BOH-duh.
Nicknames for Bode
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1998
- Most boys named
- 2025347 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #748reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +10.9%347 in 2025, from 313
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Bode in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Bodo in German — related form
- Bode in Dutch — same name
- Bode in Danish / Norwegian — same name
- Boto in Old High German — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Colorado, Minnesota.
Bodes among us
people named Bode are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 4,922 born in 2025 was named Bode
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Bode
- #748
- Bode on the 2025 chart
- #550
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Bode went to 347 boys in 2025, but Bodee is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 426, which makes it the 550th most-given boys’ name of the year — 198 places above the chart.
- Bode347
- Bodee79
About 1 boy in 4,010 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 4,922 for Bode itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Kenji test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Bode's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kenji climbed just as high around 1978, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kenji's path sketches the road Bode is walking now.
Bode sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Bode is headed
Bode should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Bode beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Bode in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Short, four letters, and spelled the way most people write it once they have heard it said.
- Comes with Bo already attached — a short form that also stands alone as a full given name.
- A documented surname across German, Dutch and Scandinavian records, so it is recognizable well beyond English.
- Rhythmically at home beside Cody, Brody and Bowie, without duplicating any of them.
- The written form invites the one-syllable English reading, 'bode' as in bodes well. Most people get it after one correction, but the correction will be a lifelong small habit.
- Bodie, Brody and Bodhi are all in circulation and sound close. Expect some of each in the mail and in class rosters.
- As an American first name it is genuinely new, so there are few adult bearers to make it familiar to older relatives — and outside the sport, the name is still closely tied to one well-known skier.
- A child with this name will likely be the only one in the room, which is mostly a gift and occasionally a small chore of introducing yourself twice.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Bode to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Bode
Masculine · #748 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Bodes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,700 people named Bode are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Bode?
- Bode is the most-used spelling in US records — 347 of the 426 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Bodee.
- How popular is the name Bode in 2025?
- Bode ranks #748 among US boy names in 2025, with 347 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Bode?
- About 1 in every 4,922 US boys born in 2025 was named Bode — 347 in all.
- Will my child share the name Bode with classmates?
- Bode will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Bode
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Azaiah#749 · Matheo#750 · Enoch#746 · Forest#750 · Franco#746 · Brixton#744 · Junior#752 · Yousef#744
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Bode? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Bode and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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