“And my wife wanted a ‘Jr.,’ you know, Cody Jr.”
That’s how Cody Johnson tells it. And honestly, who could blame her?
Cody is a Texas country singer and a former rodeo cowboy who rode bulls at local rodeos when he was young. Most fans know him for his hit “‘Til You Can’t.” He and his wife, Brandi, have been married since 2008, and they already had two daughters, Clara and Cori.
Then the family grew. Their younger daughter, Cori, was born in 2017, so the new baby arrived about eight years after their last one.
Brandi had a fun way of breaking the news. She texted Cody to come out to the barn and help her unload her truck. What she wanted him to see was a pregnancy test. When Clara heard, she said, “Oh my God, I’m gonna be a big sister.”
Their son was born on Oct 21, 2025, their first boy after two girls. That means he turned one on Oct 21.
Here’s a quick news report on the baby’s arrival, if you missed the happy news last fall.
News of Cody and Brandi’s baby boy
So what about the name?
Brandi wanted the boy to carry his daddy’s name. Cody thought about where life might take his son, and he said no.
“And I’m like, ‘No, I want him to be his own man. His own person. What if he never wants anything to do with music?'”
So they went another way. “And so we named him after our ranch.”
The Johnsons’ place is the J Bar C Ranch. “So my ranch brand on all my cows and horses, it’s J Bar C,” Cody explained. People kept shortening it, too. “Our ranch is the J Bar C Ranch, and the first time we sponsored a volleyball tournament, and they were like, ‘Thanks to the J C Ranch.'”
That stuck. “So we just named him Jaycee.” His full name is Jaycee Daniel Johnson, and Cody is particular about the spelling. “You know it’s named after the ranch, and it’s spelled like Kaycee, Wyoming.”
He told the story backstage at last year’s CMA Awards, and it’s even better hearing it from Cody himself.
Cody explains his son’s name backstage at the CMA Awards
“J-A-Y-C-E-E and we decided boy or girl was going to be Jaycee,” he told Country Now.
The little guy has his daddy wrapped around his finger. “He’s fun though, man. He smiles a lot. He giggles,” Cody said early this year. He’s also found out the rougher he plays, the more Jaycee laughs.
Cody even released a song for him, “Bible For A Boy (For Jaycee).” It carries Jaycee’s name right in the title.
Cody’s song for his boy, “Bible For A Boy (For Jaycee)”
This month is a big one for the Johnsons at work too. Cody is up for Entertainer of the Year at the 60th CMA Awards on Wednesday, Nov 18, in Nashville. He’s also nominated for Male Vocalist of the Year and Single of the Year for “The Fall.”
He’s been in this spot before. Here he is talking with Extra after winning Entertainer of the Year at the ACM Awards, and the word Extra used for his reaction was “disbelief.”
Cody reacts to his ACM Entertainer of the Year win
There’s one more date on the family calendar. Cody and Brandi married on Nov 8, 2008, so this Sunday they’ll hit 18 years together, this time with a one-year-old named after their ranch in the family.