Wadie
A masculine Arabic name meaning "gentle" or "peaceful".
Name Census estimates that about 39 living Americans carry the first name Wadie. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 51.6% of registrations being female. The average person named Wadie today is around 66 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Wadie births was 1917 (14 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Wadie. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Wadie is about 66 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Wadies were born before 1970.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Wadie. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
39
~ 1 in 8,788,573 Americans
Peak year
1917
14 babies that year
Average age
66
years old
2008 SSA rank
#3,849
Tracked since 1891
Census
Wadie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 305 people with the first name Wadie, which placed it at #29,174 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#29,174
National first-name rank
People counted
305
305 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
69.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Wadie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Wadie is White at 69.5%. The next largest groups are Black (24.3%) and Two or More Races (3.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Wadie described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Wadie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White69.5% · 212
- Black or African American24.3% · 74
- Two or more races3.0% · 9
- Hispanic or Latino2.3% · 7
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 2
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Wadie
Wadie is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 186 total registrations, 90 (48.4%) were male and 96 (51.6%) were female.
Wadie as a male name
- Ranked #14,504 in 2008
- 5 male births in 2008
- Peak: 1917 (7 births)
Wadie as a female name
- Ranked #3,849 in 1940
- 7 female births in 1940
- Peak: 1918 (8 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Wadie leans strongly male. 242 people counted with this name were male (80.4%), compared with 59 female bearers (19.6%).
Popularity
Wadie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Wadie from the 1890s through to the 2000s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 51 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1910s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Wadie by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Wadie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Wadie
The name Wadie has its origins in the Arabic language and culture, where it is a diminutive form of the name Wadi, which means "valley" or "oasis." The name dates back to ancient times in the Middle East and North Africa, where valleys and oases were important sources of water and life in the arid desert regions.
Wadie is a masculine name that was commonly used in the Arab world during the medieval period. It is believed to have first appeared in written records and historical texts from the 7th century onwards, during the rise of the Islamic Caliphates. The name was popular among the Arab nobility and scholars of that era.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Wadie can be found in the writings of the renowned Arab historian and scholar, Al-Tabari (838-923 CE), who chronicled the history of the Islamic world. He mentions a scholar named Wadie ibn Al-Qasim, who lived in the 9th century and was renowned for his knowledge of Islamic jurisprudence.
In the 11th century, a famous Arab poet and philosopher named Wadie Al-Andalusi (1017-1086 CE) hailed from the Iberian Peninsula (modern-day Spain and Portugal). He was known for his works on philosophy, astronomy, and mathematics, and his poetry was widely celebrated in the courts of the Moorish rulers of the time.
Another notable figure from history who bore the name Wadie was Wadie Al-Bukhari (1202-1284 CE), a renowned Islamic scholar and jurist from the city of Bukhara (modern-day Uzbekistan). He was an influential figure in the development of Islamic legal philosophy and authored several important works on the subject.
During the Ottoman Empire, which ruled over much of the Middle East and North Africa from the 14th to the 20th century, the name Wadie was also popular among the ruling elite. One such figure was Wadie Pasha (1828-1902 CE), a high-ranking Ottoman statesman and military commander who played a significant role in the modernization of the Ottoman army.
In more recent times, a notable bearer of the name Wadie was Wadie Mustafa (1913-1962 CE), a prominent Egyptian writer, journalist, and political activist. He was a vocal advocate for Arab nationalism and played a significant role in the Egyptian revolution of 1952, which overthrew the monarchy and established a republic.
People
Wadie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Wadie as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with W
Other first names starting with W with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Wadie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Wadie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 39 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Wadie going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 8,788,573 US residents.
Is Wadie a common name?
We classify Wadie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 50.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 186 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Wadie most popular?
The single biggest year for Wadie was 1917, when 14 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Wadie is about 66 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Wadie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 305 people with the name Wadie, or 0.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #29,174 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Wadie in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Wadie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Wadie leans strongly male. 242 people counted with this name were male (80.4%), compared with 59 female bearers (19.6%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Wadie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Wadie is White at 69.5%. The next largest groups are Black (24.3%) and Two or More Races (3.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Wadie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Wadie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 69.5% (212 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Wadie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Wadie a female name?
Yes, 51.6% of people registered as Wadie in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Wadie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Wadie in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Wadie can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Wadie?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.