Bode
Bode was given to 347 boys in 2025, #748 among boys’ names; 4,759 Americans have been recorded with it since 1998 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 4,720 Americans named Bode and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 10 years old and half are between 5 and 16.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Bode by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Bode mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Bode is “a male given name.” Its etymology gives the sense “messenger” (bode).
As a Dutch and German surname, from bode (“messenger”).
As a German and Danish surname, from the name Bodo, derived from Old Saxon bodo (“messenger”), related to above.
As a Dutch and German surname, from Bude (“booth, small house”).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Bode?
#748 among boys’ names, 2025
Bode rose from #850 in 2015 to #748 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.14 to 0.20 per 1,000.
347 babies in 2025, the peak
Bode peaked in 2025, when 347 boys were given it, #748 among boys’ names. In 2024 it went to 313 boys.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 347 | #748 | 0.20 |
| 2024 | 313 | #806 | 0.18 |
| 2023 | 218 | #1,008 | 0.13 |
| 2022 | 236 | #959 | 0.14 |
| 2021 | 290 | #824 | 0.17 |
| 2020 | 280 | #821 | 0.16 |
| 2019 | 223 | #957 | 0.12 |
| 2018 | 231 | #922 | 0.13 |
| 2017 | 171 | #1,121 | 0.09 |
| 2016 | 203 | #1,007 | 0.11 |
Every recorded year (27)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 264 | #850 | 0.14 |
| 2014 | 295 | #783 | 0.15 |
| 2013 | 116 | #1,427 | 0.06 |
| 2012 | 166 | #1,113 | 0.09 |
| 2011 | 191 | #1,010 | 0.10 |
| 2010 | 287 | #775 | 0.15 |
| 2009 | 94 | #1,665 | 0.05 |
| 2008 | 105 | #1,533 | 0.05 |
| 2007 | 143 | #1,230 | 0.07 |
| 2006 | 235 | #856 | 0.11 |
| 2005 | 82 | #1,648 | 0.04 |
| 2004 | 55 | #2,129 | 0.03 |
| 2003 | 60 | #1,934 | 0.03 |
| 2002 | 131 | #1,111 | 0.07 |
| 2000 | 8 | #7,512 | under 0.01 |
| 1999 | 7 | #7,950 | under 0.01 |
| 1998 | 8 | #6,914 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Bode a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Bode has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 27 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Bode: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Bode, and how old are they?
4,720 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 4,759 Americans ever recorded as Bode. The median Bode alive today is 10 years old; half are between 5 and 16.
The 2020 Census counted 3,206 people named Bode (17 women and girls, 3,189 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 3,120 born in the U.S. The Census count is 3% above that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,550 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 3,160 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Bode born?
The states with the most babies named Bode are California, Illinois and Pennsylvania, with 22% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 26 | #884 | 0.6× |
| Illinois | 21 | #487 | 1.1× |
| Pennsylvania | 20 | #492 | 0.8× |
| Texas | 16 | #1,256 | 0.4× |
| Ohio | 16 | #598 | 0.9× |
| Michigan | 15 | #543 | 1.0× |
| Minnesota | 14 | #394 | 2.9× |
| New York | 14 | #920 | 0.4× |
| Colorado | 13 | #442 | 3.1× |
| Florida | 12 | #1,067 | 0.3× |
Where Bode is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Bode is most over-represented in Utah: since 1998 it was given 3.4 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Bode with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 31,641 babies since 1880, Bode is the third most given (15% of them). In 2025 it was given to 347 of their 3,332 babies (10%), again the third most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Bode
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Bode and names like it
- Compare Bode and BodhiBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sBode peaked in 2025.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Bode since 1910.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Bode.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Bode alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with BMost given first.