Bodi
An Anglicized form of the Buddhist term "bodhi" meaning enlightenment or awakening.
Name Census estimates that about 892 living Americans carry the first name Bodi. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Bodi today is around 9 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Bodi births was 2024 (82 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Bodi. 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 Bodi with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
892
~ 1 in 384,254 Americans
Peak year
2024
82 babies that year
Average age
9
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,915
Tracked since 1993
Census
Bodi in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 613 people with the first name Bodi, which placed it at #17,806 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
#17,806
National first-name rank
People counted
613
613 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
77.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Bodi
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bodi is White at 77.5%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (8.2%) and Hispanic (7.0%). 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 Bodi 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 Bodi at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White77.5% · 475
- Two or more races8.2% · 50
- Hispanic or Latino7.0% · 43
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.6% · 28
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 9
- Black or African American1.3% · 8
Popularity
Bodi: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Bodi from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 384 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Bodi 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 Bodi during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Bodis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 14 states and territories. California, Texas, Oregon recorded the most babies named Bodi, while Wisconsin, Washington, Tennessee recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 13 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Bodi
The name Bodi has its roots in the Sanskrit language, originating from the Indian subcontinent. It is believed to have emerged around the 5th century BCE. The name is derived from the Sanskrit word "bodhi," which means "enlightenment" or "awakening." It is closely associated with Buddhism, as the Buddha attained enlightenment while meditating under a bodhi tree.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Bodi can be found in the Mahabharata, an ancient Indian epic composed between the 8th and 9th centuries BCE. The Mahabharata mentions a sage named Bodi who was renowned for his wisdom and spiritual teachings.
In the realm of historical figures, Bodi Raksita was a prominent Buddhist scholar who lived in the 8th century CE. He was a highly respected teacher and author of several influential works on Buddhist philosophy and practices.
Another notable figure was Bodi Dharma, a Buddhist monk who is credited with introducing Chan Buddhism (known as Zen in Japan) to China in the 6th century CE. He is regarded as the first patriarch of Zen Buddhism and played a significant role in its spread throughout East Asia.
In the realm of literature, Bodi Satva was a 10th-century Indian poet and philosopher renowned for his works on Buddhist ethics and metaphysics. His writings had a profound impact on the development of Buddhist thought in South Asia.
Bodi Prajna, a 12th-century Tibetan Buddhist scholar and translator, was instrumental in translating numerous Sanskrit texts into Tibetan, contributing greatly to the preservation and dissemination of Buddhist teachings in the region.
While the name Bodi has its origins in Sanskrit and Buddhism, it has been adopted and used across various cultures and regions over the centuries, often with slight variations in spelling or pronunciation.
People
Bodi + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Bodi as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with B
Other first names starting with B with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Bodi: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Bodi?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 892 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Bodi 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 384,254 US residents.
Is Bodi a common name?
We classify Bodi as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 899 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Bodi most popular?
The single biggest year for Bodi was 2024, when 82 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Bodi is about 9 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Bodi in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 613 people with the name Bodi, or 0.20 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #17,806 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 Bodi 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 Bodi?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Bodi leans strongly male. 590 people counted with this name were male (96.9%), compared with 19 female bearers (3.1%). 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 Bodi?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bodi is White at 77.5%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (8.2%) and Hispanic (7.0%). 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 Bodi most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Bodi in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.5% (475 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 Bodi in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Bodi a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Bodi in the SSA data are male. 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 Bodi still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Bodi 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 Bodi 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 have Bodi as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.