Woods is an English surname for someone who lived by a "wood" or "forest", and as a first name it is one of the plural nature surnames, with Brooks, Banks and Wells, that American parents have discovered in the last decade. Golfer Tiger Woods keeps the name in the sports pages. Woods has climbed quickly, from number 5977 in 2015 to number 1476 in 2025, its best rank so far, though it remains outside the top 1000.