Woodford
Masculine · “Old English wudu and ford”
England's ford names map the road network before bridges. Oxford is where oxen crossed, Bradford where the crossing was broad, Hereford where an army did, and Stratford where a Roman road did, since straet is the Old English word for a paved road. A ford name is a piece of infrastructure history.
How old is the name Woodford?
Woodford first appears in US birth records in 1911 — 114 years ago. The typical Woodford alive today was born around 1927, making them about 98 years old. About 100 people named Woodford are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Woodford most popular?
Woodford peaked in 1916, reaching #1265 nationally. Today it ranks #8910, 7,645 places below that high. See the whole 1916 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From wudu to Woodford
The story of Woodford
A ford is a crossing shallow enough to walk or ride through, and before the great age of bridge-building every route was defined by where the fords were. English place names record them in detail. Oxford is the oxen's ford. Bradford is the broad one. Hereford is the army's, from here, a host, marking a crossing wide enough for troops. Chelmsford, Guildford, Stamford and Watford are all named for the same thing with different qualifiers. Stratford is the most informative, because straet is the Old English borrowing of Latin strata, a paved road: a Stratford is where a Roman road crossed a river, and the several Stratfords in England sit on Roman routes accordingly. Read enough of them together and you can reconstruct which crossings mattered, who used them and what the country around them looked like.
Meaning
Old English wudu and ford, ford by the wood
Woodford is from Old English wudu, wood, and ford, a river crossing, giving the ford by the wood. Several English places bear the name, including one in Essex now part of London. The surname derives from them and the American given name from the surname. The peak is 1916.
How the name formed
- wudu
- Woodford
Related forms: Wooford
Pronouncing Woodford
WUUD-furd
Two syllables, stress on the first. The second syllable is unstressed and reduced, as in every English -ford name.
Nicknames for Woodford
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
- 1911
- Most boys named
- 191628 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1265reached in 1916
- Change vs 2023
- +60.0%8 in 2025, 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.
Woodford in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Wooford in English — spelling variant
Woodfords among us
people named Woodford are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 213,510 born in 2025 was named Woodford
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Woodford 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
Woodford beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Woodford in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Ford and Woody both work as short forms.
- The etymology is completely transparent.
- It is a genuine English place name and surname.
- It reads clearly as a surname.
- A well-known bourbon brand shares the name.
- The 1916 peak places it a century ago.
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Woodford
Masculine · #8910 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Woodfords are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 100 people named Woodford are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Woodford in 2025?
- Woodford ranks #8910 among US boy names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Woodford?
- About 1 in every 213,510 US boys born in 2025 was named Woodford — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Woodford with classmates?
- Woodford will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Woodford
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Davie#8910 · Ned#8910 · Darious#8910 · Alois#8910 · Len#8910 · Barton#8910 · Desmon#8910 · Winfield#8910
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Woodford? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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