Norwood
Masculine · “the north wood”
Norwood is a compass direction doing first-name work. English has Norwood, Eastwood, Westwood and Southwood, all of them the same construction — a wood on one side of somewhere — and all of them became surnames and then, in America, names for children.
How old is the name Norwood?
Norwood first appears in US birth records in 1883 — 142 years ago. The typical Norwood alive today was born around 1933, making them about 92 years old. About 900 people named Norwood are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Norwood most popular?
Norwood peaked in 1928, reaching #722 nationally. See the whole 1928 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From north wudu to Norwood
The story of Norwood
A name like this is a fragment of a sentence. It says the wood to the north, and the thing it is north of has fallen out — a manor, a village, a road that mattered once. That is why so many places carry the name and why none of them is the original: each was named locally by people who knew what the other half referred to. The surname followed the place, and America moved it to the front of the name in the nineteenth century, where it joined Elwood, Garwood, Sherwood and Lynwood as one of a small and recognizable set.
Meaning
the north wood
Both halves are ordinary Old English. There are dozens of places called Norwood in England, each of them named from where it stood relative to something else that is no longer mentioned.
How the name formed
- north wudu
- Norwood
Pronouncing Norwood
NOR-wood
Two syllables with the weight at the front. Both halves are ordinary words and neither hides anything.
Nicknames for Norwood
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
- 1883
- Most boys named
- 192179 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #722reached in 1928
- Change vs 1992
- +20.0%6 in 1997, from 5
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.
Norwoods among us
people named Norwood 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
Norwood 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 are common English words, so the name is read correctly at sight.
- Woody is a ready-made short form that no family has to invent.
- The meaning is concrete and can be pointed at on a map.
- It sits inside a set of similar names and will be confused with all of them.
- It reads clearly as a name of the first half of the twentieth century.
- A great many American suburbs carry the name, which some families like and others do not.
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Norwood
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Norwoods 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 Norwood are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Norwood in 2025?
- Norwood is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Norwood with classmates?
- Norwood will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More N names
The most-given names starting with N, all years combined.
Nicholas#112 · Nathan#63 · Noah#2 · Nathaniel#140 · Norman#1196 · Nolan#65 · Neil#850 · Nicolas#177
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Norwood? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Norwood and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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