Wakefield
Meadow by the brook, from Anglo-Saxon origins.
Name Census estimates that about 12 living Americans carry the first name Wakefield. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Wakefield today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Wakefield births was 2018 (7 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Wakefield. 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
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Wakefield. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
12
~ 1 in 28,562,862 Americans
Peak year
2018
7 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2018 SSA rank
#10,686
Tracked since 1918
Popularity
Wakefield: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Wakefield from the 1910s through to the 2010s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 7 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Wakefield 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 Wakefield 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 Wakefield
Wakefield is an English place name that has been used as a given name since medieval times. The name derives from the Old English words "wacu" meaning "wake" or "watching" and "feld" meaning "field". It likely referred to an open field used for keeping watch or guarding.
The earliest recorded use of Wakefield as a given name dates back to the 13th century. One of the earliest known bearers was Sir Wakefield de Wakefield, a knight from Yorkshire, England who lived around 1250 AD. Another early example is Wakefield de Kirketon, who was recorded in county records from Lincolnshire in 1273.
During the Middle Ages, Wakefield was sometimes given as a baptismal name to male children born in the town of Wakefield in Yorkshire. This practice of using place names as given names was relatively common among the English gentry and nobility at the time.
One notable bearer of the name was Wakefield Anstruther (c.1579-1643), an English landowner and member of parliament during the reign of King Charles I. Later, Wakefield Harper (1662-1741) was an English churchman who served as the Bishop of Chichester in the early 18th century.
In the 19th century, the name saw some use in literature. Wakefield Damon was a character in the novel The Blithedale Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1852. Around the same time, British author William Makepeace Thackeray included a character named Wakefield in his novel The Newcomes, published in 1854.
Other bearers include Wakefield Hill Burnett (1844-1919), an American businessman and banker from California, and Wakefield Baker (1886-1973), a British actor and screenwriter who worked in Hollywood during the early 20th century.
People
Wakefield + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Wakefield 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
Wakefield: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Wakefield?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 12 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Wakefield 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 28,562,862 US residents.
Is Wakefield a common name?
We classify Wakefield as "Very Rare". It ranks above 32.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 22 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Wakefield most popular?
The single biggest year for Wakefield was 2018, when 7 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Wakefield is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
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 Wakefield in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Wakefield a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Wakefield in the SSA data are male. 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 Wakefield still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Wakefield 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 Wakefield 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.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only covers names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files do not have a published Census demographic snapshot. In those cases, the page still shows the SSA trend, gender history, and state data.
How many Americans are named Wakefield?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.