Stoddard
From an Old English surname meaning "horse herd" or "keeper of horses."
Name Census estimates that about 3 living Americans carry the first name Stoddard. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Stoddard today is around 81 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Stoddard births was 1916 (8 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Stoddard. 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
- • The typical person named Stoddard is about 81 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Stoddards were born before 1955.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Stoddard. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
3
~ 1 in 114,251,446 Americans
Peak year
1916
8 babies that year
Average age
81
years old
1943 SSA rank
#3,984
Tracked since 1880
Origin
Meaning and history of Stoddard
The name Stoddard originates from Old English and dates back to the 11th century. It is derived from the words "stod" meaning "stud farm" and "hyrde" meaning "herd" or "keeper". Thus, the name initially referred to someone who tended to the horses at a stud farm.
In the early medieval period, the name was most prevalent in the counties of Wiltshire and Somerset in southern England. It appeared in various spellings such as Stodhard, Stodehard, and Stodhart.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086, where a person named Stodardus is listed as a landowner in Wiltshire. This suggests that the name was already in use among the landowning classes at the time of the Norman conquest.
During the 13th and 14th centuries, the name Stoddard began to spread beyond its original regional confines. It is found in various legal and ecclesiastical records from this period, indicating its adoption by families of different social strata.
One notable historical figure with the name Stoddard was Sir John Stoddard (c.1380-1440), an English soldier and diplomat who served under King Henry V during the Hundred Years' War. He was knighted for his bravery at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415.
Another prominent bearer of the name was Solomon Stoddard (1643-1729), a Puritan minister and theologian in colonial Massachusetts. He was the grandfather of the renowned philosopher and preacher Jonathan Edwards.
In the 19th century, the American writer and poet Richard Henry Stoddard (1825-1903) achieved literary fame for his works such as "The King's Bell" and "The Book of the East".
A more recent historical figure was Lothrop Stoddard (1883-1967), an American eugenicist and author who wrote several books promoting scientific racism and anti-immigration views. His works, such as "The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy" (1920), were highly influential in their time but are now widely discredited.
Finally, Amos Stoddard (1762-1813) was an American military officer and politician who served as the first civilian governor of the Missouri Territory from 1804 to 1805.
People
Stoddard + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Stoddard as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Stoddard: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Stoddard?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Stoddard 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 114,251,446 US residents.
Is Stoddard a common name?
We classify Stoddard as "Very Rare". It ranks above 4.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 24 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Stoddard most popular?
The single biggest year for Stoddard was 1916, when 8 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Stoddard is about 81 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Stoddard a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Stoddard 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.