Jodey
A diminutive form of the feminine name Jody.
Name Census estimates that about 128 living Americans carry the first name Jodey. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 65.0% of registrations being male. The average person named Jodey today is around 52 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jodey births was 1976 (20 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jodey. 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.
People living today
128
~ 1 in 2,677,768 Americans
Peak year
1976
20 babies that year
Average age
52
years old
2012 SSA rank
#10,221
Tracked since 1958
Gender
Gender distribution for Jodey
Jodey is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 143 total registrations, 93 (65.0%) were male and 50 (35.0%) were female.
Jodey as a male name
- Ranked #10,221 in 2012
- 7 male births in 2012
- Peak: 1976 (13 births)
Jodey as a female name
- Ranked #10,866 in 1979
- 5 female births in 1979
- Peak: 1976 (7 births)
Popularity
Jodey: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jodey from the 1950s through to the 2010s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 81 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
Jodey 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 Jodey during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jodey
The given name Jodey is an anglicized form of the Hebrew name Yehudah, which is derived from the Biblical Hebrew word "yadah," meaning "to praise" or "to give thanks." The name Yehudah was borne by one of the twelve sons of Jacob in the Book of Genesis, and it later became the name of the Tribe of Judah and the Kingdom of Judah.
In its earliest form, the name Yehudah was transliterated into Greek as "Ioudas" and then into Latin as "Judas." This Latin variant eventually gave rise to various European forms, including the English name Jude. The spelling "Jodey" is a relatively modern anglicized form of this name, likely originating in the 19th or 20th century.
The name Jodey has a rich historical legacy, particularly in the Judeo-Christian tradition. One of the earliest and most notable figures to bear the name was Judah, the son of Jacob and the patriarch of the Israelite tribe of Judah. In the New Testament, Judas Iscariot was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ, although he is infamous for betraying Jesus.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals named Jodey or variations thereof. One example is Judah P. Benjamin (1811-1884), an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the Attorney General, Secretary of War, and Secretary of State for the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War.
Another notable figure is Judah Loew ben Bezalel (c. 1520-1609), also known as the Maharal of Prague, who was a renowned Jewish scholar, philosopher, and mystic. He is particularly famous for his contributions to the development of the Jewish mystical tradition of Kabbalah.
In the realm of art and literature, Jude the Obscure (1895) is a novel by Thomas Hardy that explores the life of its protagonist, Jude Fawley, and his struggles with social conventions and academic aspirations in Victorian England.
Finally, Judee Sill (1944-1979) was an American singer-songwriter and musician who gained critical acclaim for her poetic and introspective folk-rock compositions, though she faced personal struggles and achieved limited commercial success during her lifetime.
People
Jodey + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jodey 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
Jodey: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jodey?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 128 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jodey 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 2,677,768 US residents.
Is Jodey a common name?
We classify Jodey as "Very Rare". It ranks above 68.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 143 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jodey most popular?
The single biggest year for Jodey was 1976, when 20 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jodey is about 52 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Jodey a male name?
Yes, 65.0% of people registered as Jodey 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.
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.