Weldon
From an Old English name meaning "hill valley," or "deep valley."
Name Census estimates that about 5,946 living Americans carry the first name Weldon. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Weldon today is around 60 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Weldon births was 1920 (325 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Weldon. 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.
People living today
5.9K
~ 1 in 57,645 Americans
Peak year
1920
325 babies that year
Average age
60
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,033
Tracked since 1881
Gender
Gender distribution for Weldon
Out of the 14,226 babies given the name Weldon since 1880, 99.8% 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.
Weldon as a male name
- Ranked #3,033 in 2024
- 41 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1920 (325 births)
Weldon as a female name
- Ranked #4,947 in 1931
- 5 female births in 1931
- Peak: 1924 (10 births)
Popularity
Weldon: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Weldon 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 2,902 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
Weldon 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 Weldon during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Weldons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 34 states and territories. Texas, North Carolina, Oklahoma recorded the most babies named Weldon, while Vermont, North Dakota, Maine recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 278 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Weldon
The name Weldon originates from an Old English word "welldun", which means "hill by a well". This name has its roots in the Anglo-Saxon culture and can be traced back to the 5th century AD when the Anglo-Saxons settled in parts of Britain.
The earliest recorded use of the name Weldon is found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive record of landholdings and resources in England, commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. It mentions a place called "Welledene" in Northamptonshire, which is believed to be the origin of the name.
The name Weldon doesn't have any direct association with religious scriptures or ancient texts, but it has been used throughout history by various notable individuals. One of the earliest recorded figures with this name is Sir Ralph de Weldon, a 13th-century English knight who fought in the Barons' War against King Henry III.
In the 16th century, Sir Anthony Weldon (1583-1648) was an English courtier and author, known for his work "The Court and Character of King James". Another notable bearer of this name was Walter Weldon (1832-1885), an English scholar and mathematician who made significant contributions to the field of algebraic geometry.
Moving to the 19th century, John Weldon (1812-1899) was a British Protestant Christian evangelist and author, known for his works on Christian apologetics. John Weldon was also the name of a British colonial administrator who served as the Governor of the Bahamas from 1879 to 1884.
In the 20th century, Weldon Kees (1914-1955) was an American poet, painter, and jazz musician, whose works gained recognition after his mysterious disappearance in 1955. Another noteworthy individual was Weldon McDonald (1927-2019), an American professional baseball player who played in the Major League Baseball from 1950 to 1958.
Overall, the name Weldon has a rich history spanning over a millennium, rooted in the Anglo-Saxon culture and carried by individuals from diverse fields, including literature, mathematics, religion, and sports.
People
Weldon + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Weldon 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
Weldon: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Weldon?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5,946 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Weldon 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 57,645 US residents.
Is Weldon a common name?
We classify Weldon as "Rare". It ranks above 96.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 14,226 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Weldon most popular?
The single biggest year for Weldon was 1920, when 325 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Weldon is about 60 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Weldon a male name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Weldon 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.
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.