Walker
One who walks or journeys, representing mobility or travel.
Name Census estimates that about 40,411 living Americans carry the first name Walker. It sits at #82 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (97.9% of registrations). The average person named Walker today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Walker births was 2022 (4,406 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Elisa (40,354).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Walker. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Walker with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Walker is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 938 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Walker is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 15 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
40K
~ 1 in 8,482 Americans
Peak year
2022
4,406 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#82
Tracked since 1880
Census
Walker in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 22,714 people with the first name Walker, which placed it at #1,481 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
#1,481
National first-name rank
People counted
23K
22,714 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
7.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
87.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Walker
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Walker is White at 87.2%. The next largest groups are Black (4.0%) and Two or More Races (3.9%). 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 Walker 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 Walker at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White87.2% · 19,811
- Black or African American4.0% · 899
- Two or more races3.9% · 887
- Hispanic or Latino3.6% · 823
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 191
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 103
Gender
Gender distribution for Walker
Walker leans heavily male at 97.9% of total registrations, but 938 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Walker as a male name
- Ranked #82 in 2024
- 4,023 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (4,248 births)
Walker as a female name
- Ranked #1,758 in 2024
- 115 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (158 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Walker leans strongly male. 22,185 people counted with this name were male (97.7%), compared with 531 female bearers (2.3%).
Popularity
Walker: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Walker from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 17,579 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
Walker 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 Walker during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Walkers live
The SSA's state-level files cover 49 states and territories. Texas, Georgia, California recorded the most babies named Walker, while Hawaii, Delaware, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 796 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Walker
The given name Walker originated as an English occupational surname derived from the Old English word "wealcere," meaning "fuller" or someone who beats and thickens cloth. It eventually transitioned into a first name used for children.
The earliest recorded use of Walker as a first name dates back to the late 16th century, though it was still relatively rare at that time. One of the earliest known bearers was Walker Feylde, born around 1560 in Gloucestershire, England.
Over time, the name Walker gained popularity, particularly among Puritan and Quaker communities who favored virtue names and occupational surnames as first names. Notable historical figures with the first name Walker include Walker Brooke (1813-1869), an American politician and lawyer from Virginia, and Walker Percy (1916-1990), an American novelist and essayist known for his works exploring existential themes.
In the 19th century, the name Walker became more widely used, often chosen for its association with strength, resilience, and industriousness. One prominent bearer was Walker Evans (1903-1975), the renowned American photographer and photojournalist best known for his work documenting the Great Depression.
Another notable figure was Walker Hancock (1901-1998), an American businessman and philanthropist who played a key role in the development of modern-day Silicon Valley. He co-founded the semi-conductor company Rheem Manufacturing and later established the Walker Hancock Engineering Building at Stanford University.
During the 20th century, the name Walker continued to be used, though it experienced a decline in popularity in some regions. One notable bearer from this period was Walker Percy (1916-1990), the American novelist and essayist previously mentioned, whose works explored themes of existentialism, faith, and the human condition.
People
Walker + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Walker 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
Walker: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Walker?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 40,411 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Walker 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 8,482 US residents.
Is Walker a common name?
We classify Walker as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 44,632 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Walker most popular?
The single biggest year for Walker was 2022, when 4,406 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Walker is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Walker in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 22,714 people with the name Walker, or 7.52 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,481 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 Walker 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 Walker?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Walker leans strongly male. 22,185 people counted with this name were male (97.7%), compared with 531 female bearers (2.3%). 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 Walker?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Walker is White at 87.2%. The next largest groups are Black (4.0%) and Two or More Races (3.9%). 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 Walker most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Walker in the 2020 Census, accounting for 87.2% (19,811 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 Walker in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Walker a male name?
Yes, 97.9% of people registered as Walker 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 Walker still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Walker 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 Walker 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 have Walker as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.