Jody

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 8 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Jody is also recorded as 3 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish given name44K records spelled Jody5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian

  Also written Jödy

• German given name9.2K records spelled Jody4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Germany, Austria, United Kingdom

  Languages: German, English, Dutch

  Also written Yody

• English given name5.6K records spelled Jody64 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada

  Languages: English, Hebrew, Arabic

  Also written Jodi, Judy, ג'ודי, Joedi, Judi

60 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Jody is also recorded in one other lexicon, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• English: of uncertain origin. It may be a pet form of JUDITH and JUDE , but if so the reason for the change in the vowel is not clear. Alternatively, it may be a playful elaboration of JO and JOE , with - d - introduced for euphony before the hypocoristic suffix - y . Variants: Jodie, Jodi .

  as a word

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 108 years between 1910–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Jody Williamsb. 1950USAmerican teacher and aid worker
• Jody Scheckterb. 1950ZASouth African racecar driver
• Jody Watleyb. 1959USAmerican singer
• Jody Hiceb. 1960USAmerican politician and radio host (born 1960)
• U-Godb. 1970USnot in their usual nameAmerican rapper (born 1970)
• Jody Wilson-Raybouldb. 1971CACanadian politician, served as Minister of Justice, Attorney General, and Minister of Veterans Affairs
• India Summerb. 1975USnot in their usual nameAmerican pornographic actress
• Jody Hillb. 1976USAmerican director and screenwriter
• Jody Thompsonb. 1976CACanadian actress
• Jody Morrisb. 1978GBEnglish association football player

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 682 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Jody?

We estimate roughly 50 thousand people bear Jody (counting its spellings and scripts) across 6 countries in our records.

In which country does Jody have the most bearers?

We estimate about 49 thousand people bear Jody in the United States, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled jody.

How common is Jody compared with other names?

In the United States, Jody is the 488th most common given name of 3,122,706 given names recorded there.

Is Jody a male or female name?

Jody is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Jody mean?

Recorded meaning: Variant of Judy, diminutive of Judith, q.v.