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Woodford vs Woodrow

American parents have registered 39,246 Woodrows since 1880, against 578 Woodfords. Woodrow is still ahead, with 102 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Woodford against Woodrow, 1880 to 2025 0 1k 2k 3k 4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Woodford Woodrow

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Woodrow has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1900 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1930, when Woodford had 19 and Woodrow had 212.

Side by side

  Woodford Woodrow
Total US births 57839,246
Most in one year 283,372
Babies in 2025 8102
Estimated living today 1109,600
Median age today 7564
Peak year 19161918
Best rank 1,265th boys58th boys
Rank in 2025 8,910th1,644th
First recorded 19111900
Girls / boys 0 / 578139 / 39,107

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Woodfords alive today are over 75; half the Woodrows are over 64. That is 11 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Woodford and Woodrow.