Theodore Robert Cowell was born on November 24, 1946 in the Elizabeth Lund Home for Unwed Mothers in Vermont. Ted's biological father was an Air Force veteran, and was unknown to his son his whole life. His mother was Lousie Cowell. After she had her birth with him, they has moved back to Ted's grandparents in Philadelphia. While growing up there, his was taught that his mother was actually his sister, and that his grandparents were his parents. They did this in order to protect his mother from harsh criticism and prejudice of being an unwed mother,.
At the age of four, him and his mother moved to Tacoma, Washington, with some relatives. It was there where his mother had fallen in love with a military cook named Johnnie Culpepper Bundy, In May 1951, his mother married the cook, and Ted had then assumed his stepfather's last name, and had gotten the name Ted Bundy. During the marriage, they had more children, and Ted found himself babysitting many days after school. In school, he was terrible shy and uncomfortable in many social situations. He was often the one teased in school or made the head butt of the jokes and pranks. Author Stephen Michaud analyzed his behavior and decided that "he was not like the other children, he looked and acted like them, but he was haunted by something else: a fear, a doubt - sometimes only a vague uneasiness that inhabited his mind with the subtlety of a cat. He has felt it for year, but he didn't recognize it for what it was until years later." He did however, maintain a high grade point average, which carried along with him though high school and college as well.
During high school, he became more of a sociable person. His popularity increased significantly and considered to be a well-dressed and well-mannered person. He was more into politics and skiing at the time, than dating or partying at the time. After high school, he attended the College at the University of Puget Sound and the University of Washington.