Wallis
A feminine name of Germanic origin meaning "foreigner" or "stranger".
Name Census estimates that about 605 living Americans carry the first name Wallis. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 52.5% of registrations being male. The average person named Wallis today is around 52 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Wallis births was 1937 (50 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Wallis. 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 Wallis with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Wallis started out as a boys' name but over the decades crossed over and is now given to girls far more often.
- • Wallis sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
People living today
605
~ 1 in 566,536 Americans
Peak year
1937
50 babies that year
Average age
52
years old
1977 SSA rank
#5,822
Tracked since 1911
Census
Wallis in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 917 people with the first name Wallis, which placed it at #13,247 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
#13,247
National first-name rank
People counted
917
917 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
78.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Wallis
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Wallis is White at 78.6%. The next largest groups are Black (8.6%) and Hispanic (6.2%). 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 Wallis 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 Wallis at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White78.6% · 721
- Black or African American8.6% · 79
- Hispanic or Latino6.2% · 57
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.1% · 28
- Two or more races3.1% · 28
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 4
Gender
Gender distribution for Wallis
Wallis is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,190 total registrations, 625 (52.5%) were male and 565 (47.5%) were female.
Wallis as a male name
- Ranked #5,822 in 1977
- 6 male births in 1977
- Peak: 1940 (26 births)
Wallis as a female name
- Ranked #9,488 in 2024
- 11 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1937 (33 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Wallis on both sides of the split. Of the 914 people counted with this name, 384 were male (42.0%) and 530 were female (58.0%).
Popularity
Wallis: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Wallis from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 257 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Wallis 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 Wallis during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Wallis' live
Origin
Meaning and history of Wallis
The given name Wallis has its origins in the Germanic languages, specifically Old English and Old High German. It is derived from the word "walh," which means "foreigner" or "stranger," referring to someone who spoke a Celtic or Romance language.
In its early usage, Wallis was primarily a surname, originating in the Anglo-Saxon period of English history. It was often given to people who came from areas inhabited by Celtic or Romance-speaking populations, such as Wales or Brittany.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Wallis can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive record of landowners in England compiled in 1086 by order of William the Conqueror. This suggests that the name was already in use during the 11th century.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the given name Wallis. One of the most famous is Wallis Simpson (1896-1986), the American socialite for whom King Edward VIII abdicated the British throne in 1936, causing a constitutional crisis.
Another notable Wallis was Wallis Warfield Simpson (1895-1968), an American socialite and the Duchess of Windsor. Her marriage to King Edward VIII in 1937 caused a major scandal and led to his abdication from the British throne.
In the field of science, Wallis Samuel Sampson (1887-1949) was a British meteorologist and physicist who made significant contributions to the study of atmospheric turbulence and the development of radar during World War II.
Wallis Budge (1857-1934) was a renowned English Egyptologist, best known for his translations of ancient Egyptian texts and his work on the history and culture of ancient Egypt.
Wallis Warfield Simpson (1896-1986) was an American socialite who became the Duchess of Windsor after her marriage to the former King Edward VIII, which caused a constitutional crisis in the United Kingdom.
While the name Wallis has its roots in the Germanic languages and was initially used as a surname, it has since been adopted as a given name in various cultures and regions around the world, reflecting its rich historical heritage and cultural significance.
People
Wallis + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Wallis 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
Wallis: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Wallis?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 605 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Wallis 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 566,536 US residents.
Is Wallis a common name?
We classify Wallis as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,190 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Wallis most popular?
The single biggest year for Wallis was 1937, when 50 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Wallis is about 52 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Wallis in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 917 people with the name Wallis, or 0.30 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,247 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 Wallis 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 Wallis?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Wallis on both sides of the split. Of the 914 people counted with this name, 384 were male (42.0%) and 530 were female (58.0%). 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 Wallis?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Wallis is White at 78.6%. The next largest groups are Black (8.6%) and Hispanic (6.2%). 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 Wallis most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Wallis in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.6% (721 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 Wallis in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Wallis a male name?
Yes, 52.5% of people registered as Wallis 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 Wallis still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Wallis 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 Wallis 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 Wallis?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.