Codey
Masculine · “descendant of the helpful one”
Codey is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 3,219 boys against 28 girls since 1880.
A scout and buffalo hunter turned his own life into a traveling show, took it to Europe, and performed for two queens and a pope. Buffalo Bill's Wild West ran for thirty years and is a large part of the reason the world pictures the American frontier the way it does.
How old is the name Codey?
Codey first appears in US birth records in 1972 — 53 years ago. The typical Codey alive today was born around 1994, making them about 31 years old. About 3,100 people named Codey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Codey most popular?
Codey peaked in 1993, reaching #681 nationally. Today it ranks #12008, 11,327 places below that high. See the whole 1993 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From O Cuidighthigh to Codey
The story of Codey
The show was not a play; it was an arena spectacle with real riders, real shooting and a cast that at various points included Sitting Bull and Annie Oakley. It toured for three decades, crossed the Atlantic eight times, and presented a version of the west that had already largely ended when it started. Historians have spent a century arguing about what it did to American memory, and the short answer is a great deal. The name went into American use with the man, and the Irish surname behind it is much older and much quieter: a family name from Kilkenny and the midlands, meaning descended from somebody helpful.
Meaningscholars disagree
descendant of the helpful one
From the Irish surname O Cuidighthigh, usually read as descendant of a helpful or considerate man. Alternative Irish sources have been proposed. The -ey ending on this spelling is one of four ways English finishes the sound and changes nothing.
How the name formed
- O Cuidighthigh
- Cody
- Codey
Related forms: O Cuidighthigh
Pronouncing Codey
KOH-dee
Two syllables, stress on the first. Cody, Codey, Codie and Kody are said identically; only the ending is spelled differently, and it is spelled four ways.
Nicknames for Codey
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
- 1972
- Most boys named
- 1992230 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #681reached in 1993
- Change vs 2024
- −37.5%5 in 2025, from 8
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.
Codey in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- O Cuidighthigh in Irish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Codeys among us
people named Codey are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 341,615 born in 2025 was named Codey
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 Lorin test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Codey's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lorin climbed just as high around 1913, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lorin's path sketches the road Codey is walking now.
Codey 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
Codey beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Codey in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented Irish surname with a traceable region.
- Two syllables that everyone reads correctly on sight.
- It serves either child, and the records show both.
- Cody is far commoner and at least four spellings share this sound.
- It is closely tied to one nineteenth-century American figure.
- The very few girls given this spelling will be read as boys on every form.
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What they receive
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Codey
Masculine · #12008 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Codeys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,100 people named Codey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Codey in 2025?
- Codey ranks #12008 among US boy names in 2025, with 5 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Codey?
- About 1 in every 341,615 US boys born in 2025 was named Codey — 5 in all.
- Will my child share the name Codey with classmates?
- Codey will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Codey
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Garfield#12008 · Chas#12008 · Lew#12008 · Barney#12008 · Dewitt#12008 · Granville#12008 · Cicero#12008 · Willam#12008
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Codey? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Codey and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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