The BODY surname in the USA

Frequency Comparisons
	Total	Rank	Frequency %	Per million people
United States
United States (Current snapshot)	1,863	14641	0.001	7
United States (1880 census)	676	7582	0.001	14
Change since 1880	+1187	-7059	0	-7
Other Countries
Australia	272	5690	0.002	17
United Kingdom	876	5850	0.002	19

Top States for BODY by Total
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
Illinois	168	24359	0.001	14
Alabama	160	7357	0.004	36
Texas	153	26604	0.001	7
Mississippi	149	5351	0.005	52
California	117	55070	0.000	3
Top States for BODY by Frequency
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
Mississippi	149	5351	0.005	52
Alabama	160	7357	0.004	36
South Dakota	11	22602	0.001	15
Illinois	168	24359	0.001	14
Connecticut	40	34938	0.001	12

Notes

Total is the total number of people with that surname.
Rank is the position in the list of names ordered by total (eg, a rank of 1 means that it's the most common name, and a rank of 10 means it's the tenth most common, etc).
Frequency is the percentage of people with that surname.
Per million people is the number of people with that surname per million of the population.

'A figure of zero indicates that we don't have data for this name (usually because it's quite uncommon and our stats don't go down that far). It doesn't mean that there's no-one with that name at all!

For less common surnames, the figures get progressively less reliable the fewer holders of that name there are. This data is aggregated from several public lists, and some stats are interpolated from known values. The margin of error is well over 100% at the rarest end of the table!

For less common surnames, the frequency and "per million" values may be 0 even though there are people with that name. That's because they represent less than one in a million of the population, which ends up as 0 after rounding.

It's possible for a surname to gain in rank and/or total while being less common per million people (or vice versa) as there are now more surnames in the USA as a result of immigration. In mathematical terms, the tail has got longer, with a far larger number of less common surnames.

Figures for top states show firstly the states where most people called BODY live. This obviously tends to be biased towards the most populous states. The second set of figures show where people called BODY represent the biggest proportion of the population. So, in this case, there are more people called BODY in Illinois than any other state, but you are more likely to find a BODY by picking someone at random in Mississippi than anywhere else.

Classification and Origin of BODY

Region of origin: British Isles

Country of origin: Scotland

Language of origin: Gaelic

Ethnic origin: Celtic

Religious origin: Christian

Data for religion and/or language relates to the culture in which the BODY surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the language spoken, or religion practised, by the majority of current American citizens with that name.

Data for ethnic origin relates to the region and country in which the BODY surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the ethnicity of the majority of current American citizens with that name.

Ethnic distribution of BODY in the USA

Classification	Total	Percent
White (Caucasian)	760	40.79
Mixed Race	36	1.93
White (Hispanic)	28	1.5
Black/African American	1,028	55.18
Asian/Pacific	Less than 100	Insignificant
Native American/Alaskan	Less than 100	Insignificant

Ethnic distribution data shows the number and percentage of people with the BODY surname who reported their ethnic background as being in these broad categories in the most recent national census.

Meaning of BODY in historical publications

BODY. Boda, (latinized Bodus,) occurs in Domesd. as a previous tenant, and therefore probably a Saxon. Now hoda is ASax., and hodi O.-Norse, for a messenger, and, in a subordinate sense, a preacher. It follows, therefore, that Truebody is equivalent to 'faithful messenger,' Lightbody to 'active messenger,' and Freebody to 'ambassador of peace.' (A-Sax. frith, peace.) Again Handsomebody (the original meaning of handsome being handy, active) is a 'useful messenger,' while Goodbody, originally written Godebodi, may be no other than God's messenger — a preacher of the Gospel. The Gr. ayytkoQ is used in the double sense of messenger and preacher in Mark, i. 2. See Ferguson for further conjectures.

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.

Similar names to BODY

The following names have similar spellings or pronunciations as BODY.

This does not necessarily imply a direct relationship between the names, but may indicate names that could be mistaken for this one when written down or misheard.