Woodie
Masculine · “from the wood”
Woodie is given to both — 1,924 boys and 338 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
The president who made the fuller version of this name familiar was not called it at home, or at first. He was christened with a different first name entirely and used his mother's family name instead from his twenties onward — dropping the one he was given and promoting the one that had been sitting in the middle.
How old is the name Woodie?
Woodie was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Woodie alive today was born around 1940, making them about 85 years old. About 700 people named Woodie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Woodie most popular?
Woodie peaked in 1886, reaching #578 nationally. See the whole 1886 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Woodrow to Woodie
The story of Woodie
The fuller name does not mean a row of trees. A woodrow is a row of cottages or houses beside a wood — the second element is the ordinary word for a line of dwellings, the one that gives Rotten Row and a great many street names — so the compound describes a settlement rather than a landscape. That is a small correction with a large effect on the picture: what sounds like a description of a forest is a description of the last few houses at the edge of one, which is a considerably more human thing for a place name to record.
Meaning
from the wood
An English element meaning a wood or forest, used in surnames and place names. The affectionate ending adds familiarity rather than sense.
How the name formed
- Woodrow
- Woodie
- Woody
Pronouncing Woodie
WUUD-ee
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The -ie and the -y spellings are said identically.
Nicknames for Woodie
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 194648 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #578reached in 1886
- Change vs 1991
- −16.7%5 in 1998, 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.
Woodies among us
people named Woodie 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
Woodie 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
- It is warm and approachable in a way the fuller name is not.
- The meaning is concrete and easy to explain to a child.
- The spelling gives no trouble at all.
- Woody is the commoner spelling and this one gets corrected.
- Most children with this spelling are boys, but a real minority are girls; either may be taken for the other.
- It reads as a nickname to most people even when it is the legal name.
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What they receive
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Woodie
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Woodies are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Woodie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Woodie in 2025?
- Woodie is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Woodie with classmates?
- Woodie will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More W names
The most-given names starting with W, all years combined.
William#9 · Walter#251 · Willie#1315 · Wayne#652 · Wesley#52 · Wyatt#38 · Warren#240 · Wallace#960
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Woodie? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Woodie and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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