Coda
Masculine · “tail”
Coda is given to both — 968 boys and 176 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Coda is a tail in Italian — from the Latin cauda — and a musical coda is the tail added after the piece proper ends.
How old is the name Coda?
Coda first appears in US birth records in 1924 — 101 years ago. The typical Coda is a kid of about 11 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,000 people named Coda are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Coda most popular?
Coda peaked in 2004, reaching #2238 nationally. Today it ranks #2641, 403 places below that high. See the whole 2004 chart.
Coda appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From cauda to Coda
The story of Coda
A coda is literally a tail — the passage a composer adds after the form has already finished, to bring things properly to rest. The same Latin word gives the French queue and so the English queue, a line of people shaped like a tail. Coda entered American given-name use recently and is in current use.
Meaning
tail; closing passage
From the Italian coda, 'tail', from the Latin cauda. In music a coda is a passage appended after the main structure has closed. The same Latin gives 'queue' through French. The etymology is documented.
How the name formed
- cauda
- coda
- Coda
Related forms: Coda · Queue
Pronouncing Coda
KOH-dah
Two syllables, stress on the first. Italian says it the same way.
Nicknames for Coda
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
- 1924
- Most boys named
- 202456 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2238reached in 2004
- Change vs 2024
- −12.5%49 in 2025, from 56
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.
Coda in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Coda in Italian — same name
- Queue in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Codas among us
people named Coda are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 34,859 born in 2025 was named Coda
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Coda
- #2641
- Coda on the 2025 chart
- #348
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Coda went to 49 boys in 2025, but Koda, Kodah and Codah and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 5 spellings went to 894, which makes it the 348th most-given boys’ name of the year — 2,293 places above the chart.
About 1 boy in 1,911 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 34,859 for Coda 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 Anuj test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Coda's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Anuj climbed just as high around 1979, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Anuj's path sketches the road Coda is walking now.
Coda 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 Coda is headed
Coda 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.
Coda beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Coda in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- That 'queue' and 'coda' are the same Latin tail is a first-rate etymology.
- The musical meaning is precise and appealing.
- Two clean syllables with no pronunciation risk.
- It is a musical term and reads as one.
- Cody is a near-homophone with a large record.
- It is very new as a given name.
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What they receive
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Coda
Masculine · #2641 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Codas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Coda are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Coda?
- Coda is one of 5 recorded spellings. Koda is the more common one — 778 births in 2025 against 49 for Coda.
- How popular is the name Coda in 2025?
- Coda ranks #2641 among US boy names in 2025, with 49 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Coda?
- About 1 in every 34,859 US boys born in 2025 was named Coda — 49 in all.
- Will my child share the name Coda with classmates?
- Coda will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Coda
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Keylor#2641 · Ely#2641 · Daelyn#2641 · Judge#2641 · Kato#2641 · Herbert#2641 · Giacomo#2641 · Kaycee#2641
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Coda? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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