Humanverse

Jodell vs Jody

American parents have registered 87,407 Jodys since 1880, against 813 Jodells. Jody is still ahead, with 56 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Jodell against Jody, 1880 to 2025 0 1k 2k 3k 4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Jodell Jody

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Jody has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1910 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1930, when Jodell had 5 and Jody had 20.

Side by side

  Jodell Jody
Total US births 81387,407
Most in one year 423,700
Babies in 2025 under 556
Estimated living today 65076,000
Median age today 6555
Peak year 19561958
Best rank 1,637th girls170th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked6,838th
First recorded 19301910
Girls / boys 813 / 055,845 / 31,562

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Jodells alive today are over 65; half the Jodys are over 55. That is 10 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Jodell and Jody.