Wally
A diminutive of Walter, meaning "army ruler".
Name Census estimates that about 3,248 living Americans carry the first name Wally. It is a predominantly male name (97.1% of registrations). The average person named Wally today is around 61 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Wally births was 1959 (185 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Wally. 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
- • Although Wally is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 147 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
3.2K
~ 1 in 105,528 Americans
Peak year
1959
185 babies that year
Average age
61
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,735
Tracked since 1910
Census
Wally in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,807 people with the first name Wally, which placed it at #4,765 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
#4,765
National first-name rank
People counted
3.8K
3,807 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
62.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Wally
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Wally is White at 62.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (17.0%) and Black (9.0%). 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 Wally 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 Wally at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White62.6% · 2,384
- Hispanic or Latino17.0% · 649
- Black or African American9.0% · 344
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.6% · 288
- Two or more races2.2% · 85
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 57
Gender
Gender distribution for Wally
Wally leans heavily male at 97.1% of total registrations, but 147 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Wally as a male name
- Ranked #6,420 in 2024
- 14 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1959 (185 births)
Wally as a female name
- Ranked #5,735 in 1954
- 6 female births in 1954
- Peak: 1937 (27 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Wally leans strongly male. 3,568 people counted with this name were male (93.7%), compared with 239 female bearers (6.3%).
Popularity
Wally: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Wally from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 1,054 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Wally 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 Wally during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Wallys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 28 states and territories. California, Texas, Illinois recorded the most babies named Wally, while New Mexico, New Jersey, Kentucky recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 60 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Wally
The name Wally is a diminutive form of the German name Walter, which means "army ruler" or "commanding the army". It is derived from the Germanic elements "waltan" meaning "to rule" and "heri" meaning "army". The name Walter and its variants like Wally have been popular in many European countries for centuries.
Wally first emerged as a nickname for Walter in England during the Middle Ages. It was a common practice to shorten names during this time, leading to the rise of nicknames and diminutives. The earliest recorded use of the name Wally dates back to the 13th century.
In literature, one of the earliest references to the name Wally can be found in Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales", written in the late 14th century. In the prologue, Chaucer mentions a character named Wally, though it is unclear whether this was intended as a nickname or a full name.
One of the most famous historical figures with the name Wally was Wally Sanger (1898-1967), an American businessman and co-founder of the iconic hot dog brand, Nathan's Famous. Sanger played a pivotal role in popularizing the hot dog as a quintessential American food.
Another notable Wally was Wally Schirra (1923-2007), an American astronaut who flew in the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space programs. He was the only person to fly in all three of these landmark NASA programs and was known for his wit and sense of humor.
In the world of sports, Wally Pipp (1893-1965) was an American baseball player who played for the New York Yankees in the early 20th century. He is best remembered for taking a day off due to a headache, allowing a young Lou Gehrig to step in and begin his legendary streak of 2,130 consecutive games played.
Another sports figure with the name Wally was Wally Amos (born 1936), an American businessman and former talent agent who founded the famous cookie brand "Famous Amos". His cookies became a cultural phenomenon in the 1970s and 1980s.
Lastly, Wally Badarou (born 1955) is a French musician and record producer who has worked with artists such as Grace Jones, Mick Jagger, and Robert Palmer. He is known for his contributions to the development of new wave and electronica music in the 1980s.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Wally
People
Wally + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Wally 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
Wally: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Wally?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,248 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Wally 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 105,528 US residents.
Is Wally a common name?
We classify Wally as "Rare". It ranks above 95.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,085 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Wally most popular?
The single biggest year for Wally was 1959, when 185 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Wally is about 61 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Wally in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,807 people with the name Wally, or 1.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,765 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 Wally 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 Wally?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Wally leans strongly male. 3,568 people counted with this name were male (93.7%), compared with 239 female bearers (6.3%). 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 Wally?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Wally is White at 62.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (17.0%) and Black (9.0%). 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 Wally most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Wally in the 2020 Census, accounting for 62.6% (2,384 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 Wally in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Wally a male name?
Yes, 97.1% of people registered as Wally 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 Wally still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Wally 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 Wally 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 common is the name Wally?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Wally at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.