Jodi
Masculine · “Hebrew Yehudah”
Jodi is given to girls far more often — 79,695 girls against 962 boys since 1880. See Jodi as a girl name
Jody is a character in American military cadence. He is the man back home who has your car, your job and your girl while you are marching, and the call-and-response songs about him have been sung by every branch of the service since the Second World War.
How old is the name Jodi?
Jodi first appears in US birth records in 1953 — 72 years ago. The typical Jodi alive today was born around 1976, making them about 49 years old. About 900 people named Jodi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jodi most popular?
Jodi peaked in 1973, reaching #1201 nationally. Today it ranks #9714, 8,513 places below that high. See the whole 1973 chart.
Where it comes from
From Yehudah to Jodi
The story of Jodi
The Jody call is the standard American marching cadence, sung by a leader and answered by the formation, and its recurring figure is Jody, the civilian who stayed home. The name is generally traced to Joe the Grinder, a character in older blues and work songs who takes advantage of absent men, shortened to Joe D and then Jody. The form was popularized in the army during the Second World War and spread to every branch; the songs are functional, keeping step and breathing regular over long distances, and the content is traditionally obscene enough to have been repeatedly sanitized by regulation. What is unusual is the durability of the character: eighty years of American servicemen have addressed complaints to a man who does not exist and whose name is a corruption of another name.
Meaningscholars disagree
Hebrew Yehudah, praised
Jodi is a familiar form of Judith or Jude, from Hebrew Yehudit and Yehudah, connected in Genesis to a verb meaning to praise. It also serves as a short form of Joseph and Joel. The -i ending is female in American use, which makes the male entries unusual. The male peak is 1973.
How the name formed
- Yehudah
- Judith
- Jodi
Related forms: Jody · Jodie
Pronouncing Jodi
JOH-dee
Two syllables, stress on the first. Jodi, Jody and Jodie are homophones; the -i spelling is the most strongly female of the three in American use.
Nicknames for Jodi
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
- 1953
- Most boys named
- 197347 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1201reached in 1973
- Change vs 2024
- +16.7%7 in 2025, 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.
Jodi in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Jody in English — spelling variant
- Jodie in English — spelling variant
Jodis among us
people named Jodi are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 244,011 born in 2025 was named Jodi
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Jodi
- #9714
- Jodi on the 2025 chart
- #881
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Jodi went to 7 boys in 2025, but Jody is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 47, which makes it the 881st most-given boys’ name of the year — 8,833 places above the chart.
- Jody40
- Jodi7
About 1 boy in 36,342 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 244,011 for Jodi 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 Ciro test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jodi's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ciro climbed just as high around 1907, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ciro's path sketches the road Jodi is walking now.
Jodi 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
Jodi beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jodi in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two syllables and four letters, impossible to mispronounce.
- Judith and Joseph are both available as formal versions.
- Jo works as a shorter form.
- The -i ending reads as female to most Americans.
- It reads as a familiar form rather than a full name.
- The 1973 peak dates it to a narrow window.
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Jodi
Masculine · #9714 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jodis 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 Jodi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Jodi?
- Jodi is one of 2 recorded spellings. Jody is the more common one — 40 births in 2025 against 7 for Jodi.
- How popular is the name Jodi in 2025?
- Jodi ranks #9714 among US boy names in 2025, with 7 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jodi?
- About 1 in every 244,011 US boys born in 2025 was named Jodi — 7 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jodi with classmates?
- Jodi will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jodi
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Vern#9714 · Abrahm#9714 · Sid#9714 · Hartwell#9714 · Kwan#9714 · Adrean#9714 · Chancey#9714 · Bob#9714
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jodi? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jodi and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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