Jody
Feminine · “woman of Judea”
Jody is given to both — 55,845 girls and 31,562 boys since 1880. See Jody as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Jody is Judith at two removes, and it is also a name that never quite settled which sex it belonged to — American records carry it for boys and girls simultaneously for four decades.
How old is the name Jody?
Jody first appears in US birth records in 1919 — 106 years ago. The typical Jody alive today was born around 1967, making them about 58 years old. About 50,500 people named Jody are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jody most popular?
Jody peaked in 1970, reaching #153 nationally. Today it ranks #6838, 6,685 places below that high. See the whole 1970 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yehudit to Jody
The story of Jody
The Book of Judith tells of a widow who saves her besieged city by walking into the enemy camp and killing its general — a scene painted more often than almost any other biblical subject. The name was used steadily in Europe from the Middle Ages and heavily in English after the Reformation. Judy and Jody are its American clippings, and Jody rose through the 1950s and 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s while remaining in masculine use throughout.
Meaning
woman of Judea, Jewish woman
Through Judith, from the Hebrew Yehudit, the feminine of Yehudi — a person of the tribe or kingdom of Judah. Genesis explains the tribal name from a verb meaning to praise. The chain from tribe to region to people to name is fully documented.
How the name formed
- Yehudit
- Judith
- Judy
- Jody
Related forms: Yehudit · Jutta · Jodi · Jodie
Pronouncing Jody
JOH-dee
Two syllables, stress on the first. Jody, Jodi and Jodie are said identically for either sex.
Nicknames for Jody
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
- 1919
- Most girls named
- 19582,226 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #153reached in 1970
- Change vs 2023
- −23.8%16 in 2025, from 21
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.
Jody in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Yehudit in Hebrew — related form
- Jutta in German — related form
- Jodi in English — spelling variant
- Jodie in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Jodys among us
people named Jody are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 100,454 born in 2025 was named Jody
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Jody
- #6838
- Jody on the 2025 chart
- #908
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Jody went to 16 girls in 2025, but Jodi is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 52, which makes it the 908th most-given girls’ name of the year — 5,930 places above the chart.
- Jodi36
- Jody16
About 1 girl in 30,909 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 100,454 for Jody 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 Fern test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jody's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Fern climbed just as high around 1916, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Fern's path sketches the road Jody is walking now.
Jody 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
Jody beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jody in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Judith stands behind it with a documented history reaching into the Hebrew scriptures.
- It functions for either sex, which some families specifically want.
- Short, bright and impossible to mispronounce.
- Three spellings were in use at once, so the written form has to be given.
- It is genuinely unisex, so the name does not signal sex on paper.
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Jody
Feminine · #6838 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jodys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 50,500 people named Jody are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Jody?
- Jody is one of 2 recorded spellings. Jodi is the more common one — 36 births in 2025 against 16 for Jody.
- How popular is the name Jody in 2025?
- Jody ranks #6838 among US girl names in 2025, with 16 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jody?
- About 1 in every 100,454 US girls born in 2025 was named Jody — 16 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jody with classmates?
- Jody will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jody
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Malana#6838 · Jeannie#6838 · Maxie#6838 · Nicol#6838 · Chaney#6838 · Keana#6838 · Concetta#6838 · Pheobe#6838
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jody? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jody and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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