Todd
Masculine · “a fox”
Todd is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 282,330 boys against 1,060 girls since 1880. See Todd as a girl 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 1881 — 144 years ago. The typical Todd alive today was born around 1969, making them about 56 years old. About 245,000 people named Todd are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Todd most popular?
Todd peaked in 1964, reaching #28 nationally. Today it ranks #1609, 1,581 places below that high. See the whole 1964 chart.
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
- 1881
- Most boys named
- 196415,350 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #28reached in 1964
- Change vs 2023
- −6.3%105 in 2025, from 112
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
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Pennsylvania, California.
Todds among us
people named Todd are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 16,267 born in 2025 was named Todd
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Wayne test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Todd's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Wayne climbed just as high around 1946, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Wayne's path sketches the road Todd is walking now.
Todd 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 Todd is headed
Todd should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Todd beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Todd in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
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
Masculine · #1609 in the U.S.
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 245,000 people named Todd are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Todd in 2025?
- Todd ranks #1609 among US boy names in 2025, with 105 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Todd?
- About 1 in every 16,267 US boys born in 2025 was named Todd — 105 in all.
- Will my child share the name Todd with classmates?
- Todd will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Todd
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Keagan#1609 · Cru#1609 · Cristobal#1609 · Steve#1609 · Phineas#1609 · Zade#1609 · Karam#1609 · Valen#1609
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Todd? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Todd 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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