Odie
A name transferred from a nickname for the Norse god Odin.
Name Census estimates that about 937 living Americans carry the first name Odie. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 62.1% of registrations being male. The average person named Odie today is around 66 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Odie births was 1916 (109 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Odie. 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.
Key insights
- • Odie sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
- • The typical person named Odie is about 66 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Odies were born before 1970.
People living today
937
~ 1 in 365,800 Americans
Peak year
1916
109 babies that year
Average age
66
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,392
Tracked since 1880
Gender
Gender distribution for Odie
Odie is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 4,195 total registrations, 2,606 (62.1%) were male and 1,589 (37.9%) were female.
Odie as a male name
- Ranked #9,595 in 2024
- 8 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1918 (62 births)
Odie as a female name
- Ranked #6,392 in 1963
- 6 female births in 1963
- Peak: 1916 (56 births)
Popularity
Odie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Odie from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 828 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Odie 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 Odie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Odies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 9 states and territories. Mississippi, Texas, Tennessee recorded the most babies named Odie, while Georgia, Louisiana, Kentucky recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 129 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Odie
The name Odie is a diminutive form of the Old English name Oda, which is derived from the Germanic word "od," meaning wealth or prosperity. The name Oda was popular among the Anglo-Saxons and can be traced back to the 7th century AD.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Odie appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a collection of annals documenting the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The Chronicle mentions an individual named Odie, who was a thegn (a high-ranking noble) in the court of King Edward the Confessor in the 11th century.
In the 12th century, there was a notable figure named Odie of Cambrai, a French cleric and author who wrote several theological works. He was born around 1105 and died in 1174.
During the Middle Ages, the name Odie was also associated with Saint Oda, a 7th-century abbess and founder of the monastery of Amay in present-day Belgium. She is venerated in the Catholic Church, and her feast day is celebrated on November 23.
In the 16th century, an English Protestant reformer named Odie Delfray played a significant role in the English Reformation. He was born in 1500 and died in 1559.
Another notable figure with the name Odie was Odie Olerius, a Danish astronomer and mathematician born in 1570. He made important contributions to the field of astronomy and was known for his accurate calculations of planetary positions.
While the name Odie was more prevalent in earlier centuries, it has remained in use throughout history, albeit less commonly. Several other individuals with this name can be found in various historical records, though their significance may not be as widely recognized.
People
Odie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Odie as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with O
Other first names starting with O with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Odie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Odie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 937 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Odie 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 365,800 US residents.
Is Odie a common name?
We classify Odie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,195 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Odie most popular?
The single biggest year for Odie was 1916, when 109 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Odie is about 66 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Odie a male name?
Yes, 62.1% of people registered as Odie 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.