Jody

Meaning & origin

Jody entered the U.S. naming landscape in 1919, the first year recorded in Social Security data. It reached its peak rank in 1970, the apex of a generation of trendsetting American names. By 2025, Jody ranked 6,838, with roughly 1 in 100,454 newborns receiving the name. Its trajectory has been steadily falling since 1985, reflecting a broader shift away from the resonant, vowel-ending names of the mid-century. Jody's moderate but enduring presence, neither fading entirely nor returning to fashion, marks it as a name closely tied to its era while remaining in occasional use across a broad geographic range.

Jody emerged in 20th-century America as an independent given name, possibly derived as a feminine diminutive of Joseph (from Hebrew Yosef, 'He will add') or as a variant of the surname Cody. Its popularity peaked in the 1970s, and it has been used for both boys and girls.