Woodrow is the male English given name which was originally an English surname which may originally derive from a toponym meaning "row of houses by a wood" in Old English.
[citation needed] Other sources suggest the name directly derives from woodroe ("the border hedge"), an appellation for a border guard.
[citation needed] Other sources suggest that the name is a variant of wood+reeve, a local official, thus a forest keeper or guardian.
The name was made popular, in part, by US president Woodrow Wilson, whose mother's maiden name was Woodrow.
The pet form of Woodrow is Woody.