Wenson
A unique name with no clear established meaning or origin.
Name Census estimates that about 5 living Americans carry the first name Wenson. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Wenson today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Wenson births was 2010 (5 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Wenson. 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 Wenson. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
5
~ 1 in 68,550,868 Americans
Peak year
2010
5 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2010 SSA rank
#14,151
Tracked since 2010
Popularity
Wenson: popularity over time
Babies born per year
Decades
Wenson 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 Wenson during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010s | 5 | 0 | 5 |
Origin
Meaning and history of Wenson
The name Wenson is an English given name with origins dating back to the 13th century. It is derived from the Old English words "wen" meaning hope or expectation, and "son" meaning son. The earliest recorded use of the name Wenson was found in historical records from the village of Wensley in Yorkshire, England in the year 1271.
Wenson was a relatively uncommon name during the Middle Ages but gained some popularity among English nobility in the 15th and 16th centuries. One notable bearer of the name was Sir Wenson Thorpe, a knight who fought alongside King Henry V at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. Another early example is Wenson Fitzwilliam, a wealthy landowner from Lincolnshire who lived in the late 1400s.
In the 17th century, the name appeared in several religious texts and sermons published by the Church of England. Reverend Wenson Crowley, a prominent clergyman from Oxford, authored a widely-read book titled "The Virtuous Life" in 1632. Around this time, the name also began to see some use among Puritan families in the American colonies.
As the name spread to the New World, one of the earliest recorded Americans named Wenson was Wenson Applegate, a farmer and militiaman who was born in Virginia in 1734. He later fought in the Revolutionary War. Another notable figure was Wenson Blake, a lawyer and politician from South Carolina who served in the US House of Representatives from 1813 to 1817.
In the 19th century, the name remained relatively uncommon but a few individuals of note bore it. Wenson Corbett was a British explorer and naturalist who traveled extensively in Africa and Asia in the 1840s and 1850s. Wenson Marlow was an English novelist and playwright born in 1822 who wrote several popular works of historical fiction.
People
Wenson + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Wenson 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
Wenson: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Wenson?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Wenson 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 68,550,868 US residents.
Is Wenson a common name?
We classify Wenson as "Very Rare". It ranks above 18.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Wenson most popular?
The single biggest year for Wenson was 2010, when 5 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Wenson is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
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 Wenson in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Wenson a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Wenson 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 Wenson still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Wenson 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 Wenson 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.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only covers names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files do not have a published Census demographic snapshot. In those cases, the page still shows the SSA trend, gender history, and state data.
How many people have Wenson as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.