Jodi - Name Meaning and Popularity -

Meaning of Jodi

Jodi, predominantly employed as a feminine appellation within Anglo-American contexts, represents a contracted form of Jody—a diminutive of the Hebrew name Yosef, which denotes “He will add”—and is occasionally associated with Josephine or, less frequently, with Judith. Pronounced JO-dee in both British and American English, the name achieved its historical zenith in the United States in 1974, when 3,306 newborn girls were so named, placing it at rank 90, before entering a sustained period of decline that culminated in 49 occurrences and rank 901 in 2024. From an onomastic perspective, Jodi illustrates the interplay of phonetic brevity and cultural preference in shaping the rise and decline of given-name popularity, its concise structure and unadorned tonal quality supporting a persistent, albeit diminished, role in contemporary naming conventions.