The story
From a mistaken belief that the use of such effigies features in the voodoo religion of either Haiti or Louisiana.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
voodoo doll
Today it means: A poppet; a doll made to resemble a person in order to cast spells on them or to galvanize some change in them by modifying the doll, often by inserting pins and needles or by binding it. Full definition →