Todd
Feminine · “a fox”
Todd is given to boys far more often — 282,330 boys against 1,060 girls since 1880. See Todd as a boy name
Todd is a fox. The word tod meant one in northern England and Scotland for six hundred years — a tod-hunt was a fox hunt, and a man called Todd was almost certainly nicknamed for red hair or for being sly. The animal word has almost died out and the surname is everywhere, which is the usual fate of these things.
How old is the name Todd?
Todd first appears in US birth records in 1953 — 72 years ago. The typical Todd alive today was born around 1971, making them about 54 years old. About 1,000 people named Todd are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Todd most popular?
Todd peaked in 1968, reaching #1418 nationally. See the whole 1968 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From tod, a northern word for a fox to Todd
The story of Todd
The other Todd is a fiction that will not stay fictional. The demon barber of Fleet Street first appears in a penny serial in the 1840s, a cheap weekly with a plot about a barber, a pie shop and a chair that tipped customers into the cellar. It was a hit, was turned into a play within months, and has been remade in every medium since. Almost as soon as it appeared, people began claiming it was based on a real case — a French one, an eighteenth-century one, a suppressed one. No record of any such crime has ever been produced, and researchers have been looking for a hundred and eighty years.
Meaning
a fox
Tod is a northern English and Scots word of uncertain origin, in use from the Middle Ages and still heard in dialect within living memory. Surnames of this kind are nicknames, and the two obvious reasons for calling a man a fox are the color of his hair and the way he does business. It became an American first name in the twentieth century largely through the surname habit, and then had an enormous run in the 1960s that had nothing to do with foxes at all.
How the name formed
- tod, a northern word for a fox
- the nickname becomes an English and Scottish surname
- a penny serial invents a barber in the 1840s
- the surname becomes an American first name
- an enormous American run in the 1960s
Related forms: Tod · Toddy
Pronouncing Todd
TOD
One syllable, rhyming with odd. The doubled letter keeps the vowel short and is the only thing separating the name from the dialect word.
Nicknames for Todd
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 girls named
- 196863 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1418reached in 1968
- Change vs 1994
- 0.0%5 in 1998, 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.
Todd in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Tod in Scots — spelling variant
- Toddy in English — related form
Todds among us
people named Todd 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
Todd 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
- One syllable, four letters and no possible mispronunciation anywhere.
- It has a concrete meaning that a child can picture, which most surname-names lack.
- It works for a child of either sex, though the record leans heavily one way.
- It is closely dated to the 1960s and 1970s and reads as a father's name rather than a son's.
- The barber is the loudest association for anyone who has been to the theater.
- There is nothing to shorten and nothing to lengthen.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Todd
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Todds are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Todd are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Todd in 2025?
- Todd is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Todd with classmates?
- Todd will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More T names
The most-given names starting with T, all years combined.
Teresa#908 · Theresa#1548 · Tiffany#878 · Tammy#3645 · Taylor#403 · Tina#2778 · Tracy#2153 · Thelma#4661
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Todd? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Todd and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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