Teddy
Feminine · “gift of God”
Teddy is given to both — 1,775 girls and 33,627 boys since 1880. See Teddy as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Teddy sits on two long names that have nothing in common, and it also gave English a toy. The bear is named after a president who declined to shoot one, which is a rare case of a name going from a person to an object and staying there.
How old is the name Teddy?
Teddy first appears in US birth records in 1905 — 120 years ago. The typical Teddy alive today was born around 1953, making them about 72 years old. About 1,200 people named Teddy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Teddy most popular?
Teddy peaked in 1943, reaching #1048 nationally. Today it ranks #2957, 1,909 places below that high. See the whole 1943 chart.
Where it comes from
From Theodoros to Teddy
The story of Teddy
English made Ted from Edward by a medieval rhyming habit — Edward gave Ned and Ted the way Robert gave Bob and Richard gave Dick — and Theodore later borrowed the same short form. Teddy is Ted softened. The stuffed bear takes its name from an American president who refused to shoot a captured bear on a hunt in 1902; a cartoon followed, a toymaker followed the cartoon, and the name stuck to the object permanently. Teddy has been used for daughters as well as sons since the early twentieth century, usually as a short form of Theodora.
Meaningscholars disagree
gift of God — through Theodore; or wealthy guardian — through Edward
Theodore is Greek theos, 'god', and doron, 'gift' — a transparent compound. Edward is Old English ead, 'wealth, prosperity', and weard, 'guardian'. Teddy serves both and has for centuries; which long name a particular Teddy stands on is a family fact. Neither reading is in dispute on its own side.
How the name formed
- Theodoros
- Theodore
- Ted
- Teddy
Related forms: Theodora · Theodora · Edwina
Pronouncing Teddy
TED-ee
Two syllables, stress on the first. There is nothing ambiguous in it at all; the only question is whether the ending is spelled -y or -ie.
Nicknames for Teddy
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
- 1905
- Most girls named
- 202362 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1048reached in 1943
- Change vs 2023
- −9.7%56 in 2025, from 62
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.
Teddy in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Theodora in English — related form
- Theodora in Greek — related form
- Edwina in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Michigan.
Teddys among us
people named Teddy are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 28,701 born in 2025 was named Teddy
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Teddy
- #2957
- Teddy on the 2025 chart
- #830
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Teddy went to 56 girls in 2025, but Teddi is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 130, which makes it the 830th most-given girls’ name of the year — 2,127 places above the chart.
- Teddi74
- Teddy56
About 1 girl in 12,364 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 28,701 for Teddy 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 Vester test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Teddy's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Vester climbed just as high around 1904, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Vester's path sketches the road Teddy is walking now.
Teddy 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 Teddy is headed
Teddy looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 36% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low 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.
Teddy beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Teddy in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Warm and immediately friendly without being newly invented.
- Theodora and Theodore both stand behind it as full formal names.
- Impossible to mispronounce and easy for a small child to write.
- It is overwhelmingly a boys' short form now, so a daughter will be read as a son on paper.
- The stuffed bear association is universal and arrives with the name.
- As a diminutive it can look informal on a document that wants a full legal name.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Teddy to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Teddy
Feminine · #2957 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Teddys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,200 people named Teddy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Teddy?
- Teddy is one of 2 recorded spellings. Teddi is the more common one — 74 births in 2025 against 56 for Teddy.
- How popular is the name Teddy in 2025?
- Teddy ranks #2957 among US girl names in 2025, with 56 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Teddy?
- About 1 in every 28,701 US girls born in 2025 was named Teddy — 56 in all.
- Will my child share the name Teddy with classmates?
- Teddy will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Teddy
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Klaire#2957 · Pauline#2957 · Alea#2957 · Odelia#2957 · Rahaf#2957 · Rosabella#2957 · Kenzlee#2957 · Kalli#2957
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Teddy? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Teddy and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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