Walda
A feminine name of unknown origin, possibly derived from the German word "wald" meaning "forest".
Name Census estimates that about 111 living Americans carry the first name Walda. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Walda today is around 81 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Walda births was 1948 (36 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Walda. 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 Walda is about 81 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Waldas were born before 1955.
People living today
111
~ 1 in 3,087,877 Americans
Peak year
1948
36 babies that year
Average age
81
years old
1957 SSA rank
#6,987
Tracked since 1911
Census
Walda in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 302 people with the first name Walda, which placed it at #29,353 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
#29,353
National first-name rank
People counted
302
302 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
60.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Walda
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Walda is White at 60.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (24.8%) and Black (11.9%). 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 Walda 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 Walda at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White60.9% · 184
- Hispanic or Latino24.8% · 75
- Black or African American11.9% · 36
- Two or more races1.3% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 3
Popularity
Walda: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Walda from the 1910s through to the 1950s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 129 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1940s peak, Walda remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Walda 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 Walda during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Waldas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Walda
The name Walda is of Old Germanic origin, derived from the root words "walt" meaning "rule" and "wald" meaning "forest." It first emerged in the 5th century among the Germanic tribes of central and northern Europe, particularly in areas that are now modern-day Germany and the Netherlands.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Walda can be found in the 8th century Franconian genealogies, where it appears as the name of a noble woman from the Frankish kingdom. In the 9th century, a Benedictine abbess named Walda was noted for her leadership of the Reichenau Abbey in present-day Germany.
The name gained popularity during the Middle Ages, particularly among the nobility and ruling classes of Germanic regions. Walda Walpurga, a 9th-century Bavarian noblewoman, is remembered for her influential role in the spread of Christianity in southern Germany. Another notable figure was Walda of Hesse, a 12th-century countess who played a significant role in the politics of the Holy Roman Empire.
In the later medieval period, the name appeared in various literary works and historical chronicles. The 13th-century Icelandic saga Völsunga saga mentions a character named Walda, while a 14th-century German chronicle records a noblewoman named Walda von Büren.
Throughout history, several other notable individuals have borne the name Walda. These include Walda of Reichersberg, a 12th-century German abbess and writer, and Walda von Isenburg, a 14th-century German noblewoman who served as the regent of the County of Isenburg-Büdingen.
While the name Walda was predominant in Germanic regions during the medieval and early modern periods, it has become less common in modern times. However, it remains a part of the cultural heritage and historical legacy of these regions, reflecting the rich linguistic and cultural traditions of the Germanic peoples.
People
Walda + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Walda 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
Walda: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Walda?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 111 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Walda 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 3,087,877 US residents.
Is Walda a common name?
We classify Walda as "Very Rare". It ranks above 66.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 330 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Walda most popular?
The single biggest year for Walda was 1948, when 36 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Walda is about 81 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Walda in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 302 people with the name Walda, or 0.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #29,353 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 Walda 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 Walda?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Walda leans strongly female. 297 people counted with this name were female (97.4%), compared with 8 male bearers (2.6%). 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 Walda?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Walda is White at 60.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (24.8%) and Black (11.9%). 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 Walda most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Walda in the 2020 Census, accounting for 60.9% (184 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 Walda in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Walda a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Walda 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 Walda still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Walda 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 Walda 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 Americans are named Walda?
See how many Americans are named Walda on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.