Cody
Masculine
Cody is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 292,009 boys against 5,168 girls since 1880. See Cody as a girl name
Cody began as an Irish surname, crossed the Atlantic with emigrant families, and became so bound up with the American West that a Wyoming town still carries it. Two syllables, both open, ending on the same bright -ee that Charlie and Toby share — easy to call across a yard and easy to spell out loud. It has been on American records since the horse-and-wagon era and has never left them.
How old is the name Cody?
Cody first appears in US birth records in 1884 — 141 years ago. The typical Cody alive today was born around 1993, making them about 32 years old. About 282,000 people named Cody are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cody most popular?
Cody peaked in 1991, reaching #24 nationally. Today it ranks #318, 294 places below that high. See the whole 1991 chart.
Cody appears on these lists:
- Names of the '80s and '90s, currently resting
- Classics hiding in plain sight
- Scottish gems the US hasn't discovered
- Under the radar: quietly excellent picks
- Millennial names (born 1981–1996)
- The names with the most spellings
- all guides
Works in British families too:
Where it comes from
From Óda to Cody
The story of Cody
The name is Irish before it is anything else — a surname from Kilkenny and the southeast, written Ó Cuidighthigh or Mac Óda in the Irish and flattened to Cody by English-speaking clerks. Irish emigration carried it into the United States through the nineteenth century, where it stayed a surname first: William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody, showman and army scout, gave the name to the Wyoming town he helped found. From there it made the ordinary American journey from last name to first, one that Riley, Casey and Quinn all took. It appears in American birth records from the era of steam trains, long before its big decades, and it has kept a foothold ever since.
Meaningscholars disagree
Either "descendant of the helpful one" or "son of Óda"
Cody anglicizes two different Irish surnames. Ó Cuidighthigh comes from cuidightheach, a word for a helper or supporter. Mac Óda means son of Óda, an Irish form of the Norman name Odo. Both lines produced families spelled Cody in English, and there is no way to sort one household from the other after four centuries of anglicization.
How the name formed
- Óda
- Mac Óda / Ó Cuidighthigh
- CodyIrish surname
- Codygiven name
Related forms: Ó Cuidighthigh · Mac Óda · Kody · Codie · Coty
Pronouncing Cody
KOH-dee
Stress on the first syllable. Pronounced the same way in American, British and Irish English, and almost never misread.
Nicknames for Cody
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
- 1884
- Most boys named
- 199319,152 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #24reached in 1991
- Change vs 2023
- −0.9%1,076 in 2025, from 1,086
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.
Cody in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ó Cuidighthigh in Irish — related form
- Mac Óda in Irish — related form
- Kody in English — spelling variant
- Codie in English — spelling variant
- Coty in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida. International figures from National Records of Scotland. Sources
Codys among us
people named Cody are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 1,587 born in 2025 was named Cody
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Cody
- #318
- Cody on the 2025 chart
- #254
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Cody went to 1,076 boys in 2025, but Kody, Kodi and Codi and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 5 spellings went to 1,385, which makes it the 254th most-given boys’ name of the year — 64 places above the chart.
About 1 boy in 1,233 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 1,587 for Cody 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 Howard test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Cody's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Howard climbed just as high around 1919, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Howard's path sketches the road Cody is walking now.
Cody 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 Cody is headed
Cody should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Cody beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Cody in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two syllables, phonetic spelling, no silent letters — a child can write it early and adults get it right on first hearing.
- Has been on American birth records since the nineteenth century, so it reads as familiar rather than newly coined.
- Travels well in English-speaking countries; it also charts in Scotland.
- Short enough to need no nickname, with Code and Codes available if one is wanted.
- Same form on a kindergarten name tag and a work email — nothing to grow into or out of.
- Kody, Codie and Coty are all in real use, so expect to spell it aloud now and then — though the plain Cody spelling is the one most people default to.
- The name is strongly linked to the American West and to Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West shows. That association is friendly enough, but it is there.
- Most people carrying this name today are adults rather than children, so it may register to some ears as a grown-up's name — which also means a child is unlikely to share it with a classmate.
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Cody
Masculine · #318 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Codys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 282,000 people named Cody are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Cody?
- Cody is the most-used spelling in US records — 1,076 of the 1,385 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Kody, Kodi, Codi and Khodi.
- How popular is the name Cody in 2025?
- Cody ranks #318 among US boy names in 2025, with 1,076 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Cody?
- About 1 in every 1,587 US boys born in 2025 was named Cody — 1,076 in all.
- Will my child share the name Cody with classmates?
- Cody will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Cody
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Zyaire#317 · Dakota#319 · Casey#320 · Blake#316 · Brady#321 · Israel#315 · Jorge#322 · Sullivan#314
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Cody? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Cody and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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