Woody
Meaning
“Pet form of Woodrow, or from Old English wudu, wood; boosted by President Woodrow Wilson's popularity.”
The story
Woody is honest American shorthand. Behind the Name declines to pick a single origin: it is either a diminutive of names containing wood, Woodrow above all, or a nickname straight from the English word itself. The bearers carry the first pattern in their own names: the folk singer Woodrow Woody Guthrie, born 1912, and the actor Woodrow Woody Harrelson, born 1961, with the director Heywood Woody Allen taking the side door. The American record shows the name jumping from 12 boys in the 1900s to 160 in the 1910s, the decade Woodrow Wilson won the presidency and Woodrow itself, by Behind the Name's count, reached 44th place in 1913. The biggest single bucket is 910 boys in the 1940s, the decade Woody Woodpecker first ran. The tail is small but steady, and the 2020s, at 80 boys so far, have already passed the full 2010s count of 79.
The formal names behind Woody
Woody is an established short form of this name.
Woodrow · English origin · row of houses by the wood
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Woody has stayed rare in US records the whole time: no peak decade to name.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
64 people · the #56,233 first name in Brazil · median age 30
Among people named Woody living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1990s than in any other decade.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Woody
People given the name Woody in the United States span the generations: the middle half were born anywhere from 1950 to 1989. Age is the one thing the name won't tell you.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Woody deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Woody truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Woody fits with your family’s names and surname.
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