Durwood
Masculine · “door keeper”
Durwood turns a ward into a wood, and the meaning goes with it. The name it comes from is an office — the man who kept the king's door — and once the second half is written as a piece of forest, nothing of that is left on the page.
How old is the name Durwood?
Durwood first appears in US birth records in 1908 — 117 years ago. The typical Durwood alive today was born around 1937, making them about 88 years old. About 900 people named Durwood are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Durwood most popular?
Durwood peaked in 1944, reaching #745 nationally. See the whole 1944 chart.
Where it comes from
From Durward to Durwood
The story of Durwood
American records of the period are full of names ending in -wood: Elwood, Garwood, Norwood, Sherwood, Linwood, Lynwood. That is a large enough set to exert a pull, and names that end in something similar get drawn into it — a Durward written by ear, in a decade when every second boy in the county was a Woody, comes out as Durwood. The two spellings run side by side in the record and neither is a mistake exactly; one records where the name came from and the other records what it had come to sound like.
Meaningscholars disagree
door keeper
If the name descends from Durward the second half is a word for a guard. Written this way it reads as the word for a wood instead, and some families using the spelling will have meant that.
How the name formed
- Durward
- Durwood
Pronouncing Durwood
DUR-wood
Two syllables with the weight at the front. Durward reduces its second syllable to a hum; this spelling gives it a full vowel.
Nicknames for Durwood
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
- 1908
- Most boys named
- 194372 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #745reached in 1944
- Change vs 1987
- −16.7%5 in 1997, from 6
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.
Durwoods among us
people named Durwood are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Durwood sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Both halves read as ordinary English, so the name is said correctly at sight.
- Woody is a ready-made short form shared with a whole set of similar names.
- It sits inside a recognizable American group of names rather than standing alone.
- Durward is the older spelling and carries the meaning; this one does not.
- The two will be written for you interchangeably.
- It reads clearly as a name of the first half of the twentieth century.
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Durwood
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Durwoods are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Durwood are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Durwood in 2025?
- Durwood is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Durwood with classmates?
- Durwood will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More D names
The most-given names starting with D, all years combined.
David#35 · Daniel#22 · Donald#690 · Dennis#707 · Douglas#807 · Dylan#41 · Danny#628 · Dale#1409
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Durwood? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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