Tod
Masculine · “fox”
Tod is a fox. In northern English and Scots it is the ordinary word for one, still used in dialect, and the surname is a nickname for someone thought foxy or red-haired.
How old is the name Tod?
Tod first appears in US birth records in 1915 — 110 years ago. The typical Tod alive today was born around 1964, making them about 61 years old. About 6,300 people named Tod are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Tod most popular?
Tod peaked in 1962, reaching #331 nationally. Today it ranks #12008, 11,677 places below that high. See the whole 1962 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From tod to Tod
The story of Tod
Tod and Todd were descriptive bynames in the medieval north — a man called the fox for his coloring or his cunning — and both settled into surnames. The surname crossed into American given-name use in the twentieth century, and Todd rose enormously in the 1960s and 1970s. The single-d Tod ran alongside it and peaked around 1966.
Meaning
fox
From the Middle English tod, 'fox' — a genuine dialect word in northern England and Scotland, and the source of the surname as a descriptive byname. The German Tod, 'death', is an unrelated word and is not the source, though the coincidence is noticed often.
How the name formed
- tod
- Todd
- Tod
Related forms: Todd · Tod
Pronouncing Tod
TOD
One syllable. Tod and Todd are homophones; only the spelling differs.
Nicknames for Tod
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
- 1915
- Most boys named
- 1963558 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #331reached in 1962
- Change vs 2017
- −16.7%5 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.
Tod in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Todd in English — spelling variant
- Tod in Scots — same name
Tods among us
people named Tod are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 341,615 born in 2025 was named Tod
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Tod
- #12008
- Tod on the 2025 chart
- #818
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Tod went to 5 boys in 2025, but Todd is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 110, which makes it the 818th most-given boys’ name of the year — 11,190 places above the chart.
- Todd105
- Tod5
About 1 boy in 15,528 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 341,615 for Tod 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 Norris test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Tod's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Norris climbed just as high around 1924, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Norris's path sketches the road Tod is walking now.
Tod 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
Tod beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Tod in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The fox meaning is concrete and the dialect word is genuinely still in use.
- One syllable, blunt, and never mispronounced.
- It records a real northern English and Scots vocabulary.
- Todd is much the commoner spelling and will be assumed.
- The German word for death is a coincidence some people will notice.
- It is closely dated to the 1960s and 1970s.
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What they receive
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Tod
Masculine · #12008 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Tods are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 6,300 people named Tod are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Tod?
- Tod is one of 2 recorded spellings. Todd is the more common one — 105 births in 2025 against 5 for Tod.
- How popular is the name Tod in 2025?
- Tod ranks #12008 among US boy names in 2025, with 5 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Tod?
- About 1 in every 341,615 US boys born in 2025 was named Tod — 5 in all.
- Will my child share the name Tod with classmates?
- Tod will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Tod
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Garfield#12008 · Chas#12008 · Lew#12008 · Barney#12008 · Dewitt#12008 · Granville#12008 · Cicero#12008 · Willam#12008
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Tod? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Tod and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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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