Given name & surname
Woodruff
“a woman of the forest”·“a man of the forest”
Woodruff is a variant of Woody. Interpretations include “a woman of the forest” (American) and “a man of the forest” (American). These may reflect different naming traditions.
Meaning & origin
What it means
Woodruff is a variant of Woody. Interpretations include “a woman of the forest” (American) and “a man of the forest” (American). These may reflect different naming traditions.
Explained through its name family
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1912. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Woodruff through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 147
- 147 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 1917
- 18 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 7 in 1959. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Its largest published annual count for boys was 18 in 1917. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 129 as a first name in 2020; 24,934 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Woodruff’s family of names
Woodruff has a related form in Woody.
The ring: nicknames and forms.
Nicknames & forms 1
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
People named Woodruff
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love Woodruff, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
Woodroe
“from the row of houses near the forest”
>99% boys
Mansfield
“from the field near the small river”
>99% boys
Boswell
“from the spring near the forest”
>99% boys
Murrell
“of the shining sea”
85% boys · 15% girls
Eleck
“resembling a star”
>99% boys
Meade
“from the meadow”
99% boys · 1% girls
Oakey
“from the oak-tree grove”
>99% boys
Harwood
“from the hare's forest”
>99% boys