Walter
A masculine German name meaning "army ruler".
Name Census estimates that about 237,731 living Americans carry the first name Walter. It sits at #271 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (99.4% of registrations). The average person named Walter today is around 62 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Walter births was 1918 (13,418 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Walter. 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 Walter with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Walter is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 3,632 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
238K
~ 1 in 1,442 Americans
Peak year
1918
13,418 babies that year
Average age
62
years old
2024 SSA rank
#271
Tracked since 1880
Census
Walter in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 244,848 people with the first name Walter, which placed it at #227 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
#227
National first-name rank
People counted
245K
244,848 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
81.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
67.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Walter
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Walter is White at 67.5%. The next largest groups are Black (16.0%) and Hispanic (12.3%). 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 Walter 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 Walter at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White67.5% · 165,335
- Black or African American16.0% · 39,263
- Hispanic or Latino12.3% · 30,017
- Two or more races2.3% · 5,593
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 3,076
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 1,564
Gender
Gender distribution for Walter
Out of the 633,415 babies given the name Walter since 1880, 99.4% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Walter as a male name
- Ranked #271 in 2024
- 1,264 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1918 (13,338 births)
Walter as a female name
- Ranked #13,341 in 1995
- 6 female births in 1995
- Peak: 1925 (100 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Walter appears almost entirely male. Of the 244,847 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Walter: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Walter from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 120,673 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Walter 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 Walter during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 18,185 | 70 | 18,255 |
| 1890s | 19,495 | 118 | 19,613 |
| 1900s | 19,997 | 129 | 20,126 |
| 1910s | 89,145 | 490 | 89,635 |
| 1920s | 119,809 | 864 | 120,673 |
| 1930s | 80,906 | 581 | 81,487 |
| 1940s | 83,726 | 378 | 84,104 |
| 1950s | 72,196 | 332 | 72,528 |
| 1960s | 45,932 | 266 | 46,198 |
| 1970s | 25,729 | 216 | 25,945 |
| 1980s | 17,568 | 150 | 17,718 |
| 1990s | 12,020 | 38 | 12,058 |
| 2000s | 8,132 | 0 | 8,132 |
| 2010s | 10,606 | 0 | 10,606 |
| 2020s | 6,337 | 0 | 6,337 |
Geography
Where Walters live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois recorded the most babies named Walter, while Nevada, Wyoming, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 11,207 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Walter
The name Walter has its origins in the Germanic language, derived from the elements "wald" meaning "ruler" and "heri" meaning "army." It can be translated as "commander of the army" or "ruler of the host." The name first emerged during the late Roman period, around the 4th or 5th century AD.
Walter was a popular name among the Frankish and Germanic peoples of central and western Europe. Its earliest recorded use was in the 6th century, appearing in various medieval records and chronicles. Similar spellings from this time include Waltharius, Waltherus, and Waltarius.
One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Walter of Aquitaine, a Frankish nobleman who lived in the 8th century. He served as a Count under the Carolingian dynasty and played a role in the wars against the Moors in southern France.
In the 9th century, Walter of Sens was a renowned Benedictine abbot and theologian. He was known for his contributions to the development of scholastic theology and his writings on the Eucharist.
During the Middle Ages, the name Walter was borne by several prominent figures. Walter the Chancellor was an English historian and courtier who lived in the 12th century and wrote an important chronicle of the Norman kings.
Walter de Copton, also known as Walter of Coventry, was a 13th-century English prelate and statesman. He served as Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield and played a significant role in the political affairs of his time.
In the 14th century, Walter de Milemete was an English philosopher and scholar who wrote extensively on various subjects, including astronomy, astrology, and mathematics.
As the name spread across Europe, it was adopted by individuals from different walks of life, including noblemen, clergy, and scholars. Notable bearers of the name in later centuries include Walter Raleigh, the English explorer and writer (1552-1618), and Walter Scott, the renowned Scottish novelist and poet (1771-1832).
Notable bearers
Famous people named Walter
People
Walter + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Walter 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
Walter: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Walter?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 237,731 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Walter 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 1,442 US residents.
Is Walter a common name?
We classify Walter as "Common". It ranks above 99.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 633,415 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Walter most popular?
The single biggest year for Walter was 1918, when 13,418 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Walter is about 62 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Walter in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 244,848 people with the name Walter, or 81.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #227 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 Walter 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 Walter?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Walter appears almost entirely male. Of the 244,847 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Walter?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Walter is White at 67.5%. The next largest groups are Black (16.0%) and Hispanic (12.3%). 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 Walter most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Walter in the 2020 Census, accounting for 67.5% (165,335 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 Walter in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Walter a male name?
Yes, 99.4% of people registered as Walter 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 Walter still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Walter 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 Walter 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 are called Walter?
You can see how many people have the name Walter on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.