Wendelin
A name of German origin meaning "one who wends or travels".
Name Census estimates that about 283 living Americans carry the first name Wendelin. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 66.0% of registrations being female. The average person named Wendelin today is around 68 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Wendelin births was 1954 (30 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Wendelin. 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
- • Wendelin started out as a boys' name but over the decades crossed over and is now given to girls far more often.
- • The typical person named Wendelin is about 68 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Wendelins were born before 1968.
People living today
283
~ 1 in 1,211,146 Americans
Peak year
1954
30 babies that year
Average age
68
years old
1941 SSA rank
#3,495
Tracked since 1912
Census
Wendelin in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 486 people with the first name Wendelin, which placed it at #21,031 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
#21,031
National first-name rank
People counted
486
486 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
77.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Wendelin
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Wendelin is White at 77.2%. The next largest groups are Black (12.1%) and Hispanic (4.9%). 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 Wendelin 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 Wendelin at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White77.2% · 375
- Black or African American12.1% · 59
- Hispanic or Latino4.9% · 24
- Two or more races2.9% · 14
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.1% · 10
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 4
Gender
Gender distribution for Wendelin
Wendelin is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 559 total registrations, 190 (34.0%) were male and 369 (66.0%) were female.
Wendelin as a male name
- Ranked #3,495 in 1941
- 6 male births in 1941
- Peak: 1919 (14 births)
Wendelin as a female name
- Ranked #7,283 in 1976
- 8 female births in 1976
- Peak: 1954 (30 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Wendelin leans strongly female. 406 people counted with this name were female (83.0%), compared with 83 male bearers (17.0%).
Popularity
Wendelin: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Wendelin from the 1910s through to the 1970s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 207 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Wendelin 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 Wendelin during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Wendelins live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. North Dakota, Minnesota, Missouri recorded the most babies named Wendelin, while Missouri, Minnesota, North Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 9 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Wendelin
The name Wendelin has its origins in the Germanic languages, derived from the elements "wend" meaning "to go" or "to wander", and "lini" meaning "lime tree" or "linden". It emerged as a personal name during the Middle Ages, primarily in areas of central Europe where Germanic languages were spoken.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Wendelin can be found in the 7th century, with the life of Saint Wendelin, an Irish monk who lived in the Ardennes region of modern-day Belgium and France. He is revered as the patron saint of herders and shepherds, and his name became associated with the rural, pastoral life.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the name Wendelin gained popularity in parts of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, often appearing in monastic records and local chronicles. In the 12th century, a German abbot named Wendelin is mentioned in the chronicles of the Hirsau Monastery in the Black Forest region.
During the Renaissance period, the name Wendelin was borne by several notable scholars and humanists, such as Wendelin Steinbach (1454-1519), a German mathematician and astronomer, and Wendelin Hiller (1545-1615), a German humanist and philosopher.
In the 17th century, Wendelin Sering (1604-1668) was a German Baroque architect and sculptor who worked on notable projects in Dresden and Saxony. Another figure from this time was Wendelin Dietrich (1629-1692), a German Benedictine monk and theologian.
Moving into the 18th century, Wendelin Weissheimer (1711-1789) was a German Catholic priest and historian who wrote extensively about the history of the Palatinate region. In the 19th century, Wendelin Foerster (1844-1915) was a German classical scholar and editor of ancient Greek texts.
These are just a few examples of individuals who bore the name Wendelin throughout history, reflecting its enduring presence in various regions of central Europe and its association with scholarly, religious, and artistic pursuits.
People
Wendelin + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Wendelin 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
Wendelin: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Wendelin?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 283 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Wendelin 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 1,211,146 US residents.
Is Wendelin a common name?
We classify Wendelin as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 559 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Wendelin most popular?
The single biggest year for Wendelin was 1954, when 30 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Wendelin is about 68 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Wendelin in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 486 people with the name Wendelin, or 0.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,031 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 Wendelin 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 Wendelin?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Wendelin leans strongly female. 406 people counted with this name were female (83.0%), compared with 83 male bearers (17.0%). 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 Wendelin?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Wendelin is White at 77.2%. The next largest groups are Black (12.1%) and Hispanic (4.9%). 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 Wendelin most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Wendelin in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.2% (375 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 Wendelin in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Wendelin a female name?
Yes, 66.0% of people registered as Wendelin in the SSA data are female. 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 Wendelin still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Wendelin 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 Wendelin 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 have Wendelin as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.