Bodhi
Masculine · Sanskrit roots · “awakening”
Bodhi is given to both — 14,292 boys and 562 girls since 1880. See Bodhi as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Bodhi is the Sanskrit and Pali word for awakening — the term Buddhist texts use for what took place beneath the fig tree at Bodh Gaya, a tree still known as the Bodhi tree. It reached English first through scholars translating those texts in the nineteenth century, and later through popular culture: the surfer at the center of the 1991 film Point Break carries it. Two syllables, one soft landing, and a word older than almost anything else on a modern name list.
How old is the name Bodhi?
Bodhi first appears in US birth records in 1976 — 49 years ago. The typical Bodhi is a kid of about 6 — this name's wave is very recent. About 14,000 people named Bodhi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Bodhi most popular?
Bodhi peaked in 2025, reaching #265 nationally. Today it ranks #265, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Bodhi appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From budh- (Sanskrit root, 'to wake') to Bodhi
The story of Bodhi
Bodhi begins as a common noun rather than a name: in Sanskrit and Pali it is the word for awakening, the state Siddhartha Gautama reached seated under a fig tree at Bodh Gaya in northern India. The tree took the word as its label, and so did related terms — bodhisattva, bodhicitta — that spread with Buddhism across Asia, surfacing as bodai in Japanese and puti in Chinese. European scholars translating Buddhist scripture in the nineteenth century brought the word into English untranslated, which is how it arrived here spelled exactly as it is in Sanskrit transliteration. Its use as a given name is an American and British development of recent decades, and it has taken hold most firmly in California, Texas and Florida.
Meaning
awakening, enlightenment
From the Sanskrit and Pali noun bodhi, built on the verbal root budh-, 'to wake, to know'. The same root gives bodhisattva and the Buddha's own title, 'the awakened one'.
How the name formed
- budh-Sanskrit root, 'to wake'
- bodhiSanskrit and Pali noun
- BodhiEnglish given name
Related forms: बोधि (bodhi) · 菩提 (bodai) · 菩提 (pútí) · Bodie
Pronouncing Bodhi
BOH-dee
The 'dh' is a single Sanskrit consonant, not an English 'th' — say a plain d. Stress falls on the first syllable, and the name rhymes with 'roady'.
Nicknames for Bodhi
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
- 1976
- Most boys named
- 20251,301 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #265reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +16.5%1,301 in 2025, from 1,117
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.
Bodhi in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- बोधि (bodhi) in Sanskrit / Pali — same name
- 菩提 (bodai) in Japanese — transliteration
- 菩提 (pútí) in Chinese — transliteration
- Bodie in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida. International figures from Office for National Statistics. Sources
Bodhis among us
people named Bodhi are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 1,313 born in 2025 was named Bodhi
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Alfredo test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Bodhi's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Alfredo climbed just as high around 1980, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Alfredo's path sketches the road Bodhi is walking now.
Bodhi 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 Bodhi is headed
Bodhi 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.
Bodhi beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Bodhi in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Short, two syllables, and pronounced the way it looks once heard — no ambiguity about stress or vowels.
- Bo is a ready-made short form that already stands alone as a name in American use.
- The word itself has an unbroken written record of well over two thousand years in Sanskrit and Pali.
- Recognized in Britain as well as the US, so it travels across English-speaking countries without explanation.
- The spelling will need repeating. Bodie, Bode and Brody are all in circulation, and the silent-h version is the one people are least likely to guess first.
- It is a term of real religious weight in Buddhism, and some families — Buddhist and not — think carefully about using a sacred word as a personal name. Worth deciding where you stand before the questions come.
- The name's wave is very recent, so nearly everyone carrying it is a child. It reads as unmistakably of this era rather than as a name passed down, which may be exactly the point or may not.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Bodhi 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.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Bodhi? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Bodhi
Masculine · Sanskrit roots · #265 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Bodhis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 14,000 people named Bodhi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Bodhi in 2025?
- Bodhi ranks #265 among US boy names in 2025, with 1,301 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Bodhi?
- About 1 in every 1,313 US boys born in 2025 was named Bodhi — 1,301 in all.
- Will my child share the name Bodhi with classmates?
- Bodhi will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Bodhi
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Bowen#266 · Kayson#264 · Saint#267 · Ismael#263 · Paul#262 · Cyrus#268 · Brandon#261 · Koa#269
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Bodhi? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Bodhi and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Or jump into a head-to-head
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle