Woodrow
Masculine · “row of houses by the wood”
Woodrow is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 39,107 boys against 139 girls since 1880.
Woodrow is a row of houses by a wood — an English place name, then a surname, and then a first name given a very sharp push by one president who used it as his own middle name.
How old is the name Woodrow?
Woodrow first appears in US birth records in 1900 — 125 years ago. The typical Woodrow alive today was born around 1924, making them about 101 years old. About 10,000 people named Woodrow are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Woodrow most popular?
Woodrow peaked in 1913, reaching #44 nationally. Today it ranks #1644, 1,600 places below that high. See the whole 1913 chart.
Where it comes from
From wudu + raw to Woodrow
The story of Woodrow
Woodrow is a place name in several English counties and became a surname. Thomas Woodrow Wilson dropped his first name in his twenties and was elected president in 1912 as Woodrow Wilson — and the American registers show the name rising steeply in exactly that year and the next, one of the clearest presidential naming effects on record. It peaked in 1913 and faded within a generation.
Meaning
row of houses by the wood
From the Old English wudu, 'wood', and raw, 'row' — a row of cottages beside woodland. Both elements survive unchanged in modern English, which makes this one of the few place names an English speaker can read without help.
How the name formed
- wudu + raw
- Woodrow
Related forms: Woodrough
Pronouncing Woodrow
WUUD-roh
Two syllables, stress on the first. Both elements are ordinary English words and neither is said unexpectedly.
Nicknames for Woodrow
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
- 1900
- Most boys named
- 19162,668 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #44reached in 1913
- Change vs 2023
- +21.4%102 in 2025, from 84
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.
Woodrow in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Woodrough in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Oklahoma.
Woodrows among us
people named Woodrow are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 16,746 born in 2025 was named Woodrow
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
Woodrow 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 Woodrow is headed
Woodrow should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Woodrow beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Woodrow in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is concrete and completely transparent to any English speaker.
- Woody is a warm, distinctive short form available immediately.
- It carries one of the clearest documented presidential naming effects in the records.
- The presidential association is the only reason it has a chart history, and it is tightly dated to 1913.
- It reads as a surname to many people, which is what it was for centuries.
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What they receive
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Woodrow
Masculine · #1644 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Woodrows are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 10,000 people named Woodrow are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Woodrow in 2025?
- Woodrow ranks #1644 among US boy names in 2025, with 102 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Woodrow?
- About 1 in every 16,746 US boys born in 2025 was named Woodrow — 102 in all.
- Will my child share the name Woodrow with classmates?
- Woodrow will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Woodrow
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Reynaldo#1644 · Craig#1644 · Eamon#1644 · Nikola#1644 · Levon#1644 · Elvin#1644 · Marcelino#1644 · Daemon#1644
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Woodrow? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Woodrow and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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