Jody
A diminutive of the name Judith, derived from Hebrew meaning "she who is praised".
Name Census estimates that about 73,909 living Americans carry the first name Jody. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 63.9% of registrations being female. The average person named Jody today is around 55 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jody births was 1970 (3,700 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jody. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Jody with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Jody was once a predominantly female name but has become increasingly popular for boys in recent decades.
- • Jody sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
- • Compared to the 1970s, recent registration numbers for Jody have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
74K
~ 1 in 4,638 Americans
Peak year
1970
3,700 babies that year
Average age
55
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,682
Tracked since 1910
Census
Jody in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 72,571 people with the first name Jody, which placed it at #706 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#706
National first-name rank
People counted
73K
72,571 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
24.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
89.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jody
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jody is White at 89.8%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (2.8%) and Hispanic (2.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Jody described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Jody at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White89.8% · 65,194
- Two or more races2.8% · 1,996
- Hispanic or Latino2.7% · 1,985
- Black or African American2.6% · 1,892
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 868
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 636
Gender
Gender distribution for Jody
Jody is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 87,349 total registrations, 31,520 (36.1%) were male and 55,829 (63.9%) were female.
Jody as a male name
- Ranked #2,682 in 2024
- 49 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1971 (1,704 births)
Jody as a female name
- Ranked #6,476 in 2024
- 18 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1958 (2,226 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Jody on both sides of the split. Of the 72,569 people counted with this name, 23,672 were male (32.6%) and 48,897 were female (67.4%).
Popularity
Jody: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jody from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 27,701 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jody by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Jody during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jodys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Ohio, New York recorded the most babies named Jody, while Delaware, Alaska, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,589 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jody
The name Jody is a diminutive form of the name Jodocus, which is derived from the Germanic name Jodok. The name Jodok is itself a variant of the name Judocus, which has its roots in the Late Latin name Iudocus, a Latinized form of the Breton name Judual or Judvael. This Breton name is composed of the elements "iud" meaning "lord" and "ual" meaning "ruler."
The name Jodocus was relatively common during the Middle Ages, particularly in areas with strong Germanic or Breton influences. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name comes from the 7th century, when Saint Jodocus (or Judocus) lived in the region that is now Belgium. He was a Breton prince who later became a hermit and is revered as a saint in the Catholic Church.
In the 13th century, a theologian and philosopher named Jodocus Trutfetter (c. 1260 – c. 1335) made significant contributions to the development of scholastic philosophy. He was born in Eisenach, Germany, and was a member of the Franciscan order.
Another notable figure with the name Jodocus was Jodocus Badius Ascensius (1462 – 1535), a French scholar, printer, and publisher who played a significant role in the dissemination of classical literature during the Renaissance. He was born in Ghent, which was then part of the Burgundian Netherlands.
In the 16th century, the Dutch painter Jodocus van Winghe (c. 1542 – 1603) was known for his intricate and detailed still-life paintings. He was born in Brussels and worked in the Flemish Renaissance style.
The name Jody emerged as a diminutive form of Jodocus, particularly in English-speaking regions. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Jody comes from the 18th century, when Jody Powell (1784 – 1849), an American politician and lawyer from Virginia, was born.
People
Jody + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jody as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with J
Other first names starting with J with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Jody: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jody?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 73,909 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jody going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 4,638 US residents.
Is Jody a common name?
We classify Jody as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 87,349 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jody most popular?
The single biggest year for Jody was 1970, when 3,700 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jody is about 55 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jody in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 72,571 people with the name Jody, or 24.03 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #706 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Jody in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Jody?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Jody on both sides of the split. Of the 72,569 people counted with this name, 23,672 were male (32.6%) and 48,897 were female (67.4%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Jody?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jody is White at 89.8%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (2.8%) and Hispanic (2.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Jody most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jody in the 2020 Census, accounting for 89.8% (65,194 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Jody in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jody a female name?
Yes, 63.9% of people registered as Jody in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Jody still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jody in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Jody can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Jody?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.