Woodruff
A flower name derived from the Old English words "wudu" and "hreaw," signifying a woodland plant.
Name Census estimates that about 28 living Americans carry the first name Woodruff. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Woodruff today is around 80 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Woodruff births was 1917 (18 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Woodruff. 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 Woodruff is about 80 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Woodruffs were born before 1956.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Woodruff. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
28
~ 1 in 12,241,226 Americans
Peak year
1917
18 babies that year
Average age
80
years old
1959 SSA rank
#3,613
Tracked since 1912
Census
Woodruff in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 124 people with the first name Woodruff, which placed it at #49,647 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
#49,647
National first-name rank
People counted
124
124 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
79.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Woodruff
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Woodruff is White at 79.0%. The next largest groups are Black (16.1%) and Hispanic (3.2%). 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 Woodruff 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 Woodruff at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White79.0% · 98
- Black or African American16.1% · 20
- Hispanic or Latino3.2% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.6% · 2
Popularity
Woodruff: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Woodruff from the 1910s through to the 1950s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 57 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
Woodruff 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 Woodruff during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Woodruffs live
Origin
Meaning and history of Woodruff
The given name Woodruff is derived from the Old English words "wudu" meaning wood and "hreffe" meaning herb or plant. It is believed to have originated in England during the Anglo-Saxon period, around the 5th to 11th centuries AD. The name was initially used as a surname for people who lived near a wooded area or who were involved in the cultivation or trade of herbs and plants.
In the Middle Ages, the name Woodruff was associated with the sweet-smelling herb of the same name, also known as the Asperula odorata. This herb was commonly used in sachets and potpourris, as well as in brewing and flavoring beverages. The name may have been given to individuals who worked with these herbs or had a connection to the trade of aromatic plants.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Woodruff can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive record of landowners and estates in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The name appears as "Wooderoue" and is listed as a landowner in the county of Berkshire.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Woodruff. One of the earliest was Woodruff de Cadurcis, a Norman nobleman and Lord of Kidwelly in Wales, who lived in the 12th century. Another notable figure was Sir Woodruff de Beaumont, an English knight who fought in the Hundred Years' War during the 14th century.
In the literary world, Woodruff Leeming (1810-1865) was an English novelist and playwright who authored works such as "The Courtier's Chronicle" and "The Fortunes of a Novelist." In the realm of science, Woodruff Wallace (1892-1976) was an American geneticist and evolutionary biologist known for his work on gene interaction and population genetics.
Another notable individual was Woodruff Randolph (1887-1959), an American architect and civil engineer who designed several notable buildings, including the Masonic Temple in Detroit, Michigan, and the Randolph County Courthouse in West Virginia.
These are just a few examples of individuals throughout history who have borne the given name Woodruff, which has its roots in the English language and has been associated with nature, herbs, and plants since its inception.
People
Woodruff + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Woodruff as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with W
Other first names starting with W with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Woodruff: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Woodruff?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 28 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Woodruff 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 12,241,226 US residents.
Is Woodruff a common name?
We classify Woodruff as "Very Rare". It ranks above 45.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 147 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Woodruff most popular?
The single biggest year for Woodruff was 1917, when 18 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Woodruff is about 80 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Woodruff in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 124 people with the name Woodruff, or 0.04 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #49,647 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 Woodruff 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 Woodruff?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Woodruff leans strongly male. 117 people counted with this name were male (90.7%), compared with 12 female bearers (9.3%). 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 Woodruff?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Woodruff is White at 79.0%. The next largest groups are Black (16.1%) and Hispanic (3.2%). 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 Woodruff most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Woodruff in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.0% (98 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 Woodruff in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Woodruff a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Woodruff 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 Woodruff still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Woodruff 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 Woodruff 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 share the name Woodruff?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.