Walther
A Germanic masculine name meaning "ruler of the army".
Name Census estimates that about 65 living Americans carry the first name Walther. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Walther today is around 32 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Walther births was 1913 (7 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Walther. 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
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Walther. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
65
~ 1 in 5,273,144 Americans
Peak year
1913
7 babies that year
Average age
32
years old
2017 SSA rank
#12,162
Tracked since 1913
Census
Walther in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 466 people with the first name Walther, which placed it at #21,679 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
#21,679
National first-name rank
People counted
466
466 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
70.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Walther
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Walther is Hispanic at 70.4%. The next largest groups are White (23.4%) and Black (2.6%). 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 Walther 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 Walther at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino70.4% · 328
- White23.4% · 109
- Black or African American2.6% · 12
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.9% · 9
- Two or more races1.7% · 8
Popularity
Walther: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Walther from the 1910s through to the 2010s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 22 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Walther remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Walther 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 Walther during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Walther
The name Walther is of Germanic origin, derived from the Old High German words "waltan" meaning "to rule" and "heri" meaning "army". It is a compound name that translates to "ruler of the army" or "commander of the host". This name dates back to the medieval period and was particularly popular among the Germanic tribes and Teutonic peoples.
The earliest recorded use of the name Walther can be found in the Old High German epic poem "Waltharius" from the 9th or 10th century. This poem tells the story of a hero named Walther who fought against the Frankish king. The name also appears in various other medieval texts and chronicles, indicating its widespread use during that era.
One of the most famous historical figures bearing the name Walther was Walther von der Vogelweide, a renowned German lyric poet who lived from around 1170 to 1230. He is considered one of the greatest poets of the Middle High German period and his works have had a lasting impact on German literature.
Another notable Walther was Walther Rathenau, a German industrialist, writer, and statesman who lived from 1867 to 1922. He served as the Foreign Minister of Germany during the Weimar Republic and was influential in the country's economic and political affairs.
In the religious realm, Walther von Hunolstein (1262-1333) was a notable German Augustinian friar and theologian. He played a significant role in the reform movements within the Catholic Church during the 14th century.
Walther Funk, born in 1890 and executed in 1946, was a prominent German economist and politician who served as the Reich Minister of Economics under Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime. He was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg Trials.
Walther Nernst, a German chemist who lived from 1864 to 1941, made significant contributions to the field of thermochemistry and is best known for formulating the Nernst heat theorem. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1920 for his work on chemical equilibria and reaction rates.
People
Walther + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Walther 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
Walther: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Walther?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 65 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Walther 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 5,273,144 US residents.
Is Walther a common name?
We classify Walther as "Very Rare". It ranks above 58.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 91 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Walther most popular?
The single biggest year for Walther was 1913, when 7 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Walther is about 32 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Walther in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 466 people with the name Walther, or 0.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,679 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 Walther 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 Walther?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Walther appears almost entirely male. Of the 470 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Walther?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Walther is Hispanic at 70.4%. The next largest groups are White (23.4%) and Black (2.6%). 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 Walther most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Walther in the 2020 Census, accounting for 70.4% (328 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 Walther in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Walther a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Walther 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 Walther still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Walther 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 Walther 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 Walther?
For a quick modern take, check how many people share the name Walther on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.