Wes
A short English masculine name derived from the Middle English wease meaning "west".
Name Census estimates that about 5,854 living Americans carry the first name Wes. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Wes today is around 30 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Wes births was 2024 (345 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Wes. 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 Wes with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
5.9K
~ 1 in 58,550 Americans
Peak year
2024
345 babies that year
Average age
30
years old
2024 SSA rank
#744
Tracked since 1880
Census
Wes in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 9,931 people with the first name Wes, which placed it at #2,479 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
#2,479
National first-name rank
People counted
9.9K
9,931 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
84.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Wes
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Wes is White at 84.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.0%) and Black (3.8%). 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 Wes 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 Wes at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White84.6% · 8,400
- Hispanic or Latino4.0% · 399
- Black or African American3.8% · 375
- Two or more races3.7% · 367
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.7% · 267
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 123
Popularity
Wes: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Wes from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 1,454 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Wes 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 Wes during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Wes' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 36 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Wes, while Nevada, Kentucky, Alabama recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 88 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Wes
The name Wes is a diminutive form of the name Wesley, which is derived from the Old English words "west" and "leah," meaning "west meadow." The name is believed to have originated in England during the Middle Ages.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Wesley can be found in the Domesday Book, a manuscript recording landowners in England in 1086. The name was spelled "Wesleie" and referred to a location in Buckinghamshire, England.
In the 17th century, the name gained prominence with the birth of John Wesley (1703-1791), the founder of the Methodist movement within the Church of England. Wesley was a prolific writer, preacher, and organizer, and his influence helped spread the name throughout the English-speaking world.
Another notable figure with the name Wes was Wes Montgomery (1923-1968), an American jazz guitarist widely regarded as one of the greatest of all time. His unique style and innovative techniques influenced countless musicians and helped shape the sound of modern jazz.
In the realm of politics, Wes Watkins (1928-2015) was a prominent American politician who served as a U.S. Representative from Oklahoma for nearly two decades, from 1977 to 1991.
The name Wes has also been borne by notable authors, such as Wes Craven (1939-2015), the American filmmaker and writer best known for his horror films, including "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and the "Scream" franchise.
Wes Moore (born 1978) is an American author, social entrepreneur, and television producer who has written several books, including "The Other Wes Moore," which explores the divergent paths taken by two men with the same name.
While the name Wes is most commonly associated with the English-speaking world, it has also found its way into other cultures and languages, often as a shortened form of longer names or as an independent given name.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Wes
People
Wes + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Wes 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
Wes: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Wes?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5,854 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Wes 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 58,550 US residents.
Is Wes a common name?
We classify Wes as "Rare". It ranks above 96.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 6,408 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Wes most popular?
The single biggest year for Wes was 2024, when 345 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Wes is about 30 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Wes in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 9,931 people with the name Wes, or 3.29 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,479 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 Wes 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 Wes?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Wes appears almost entirely male. Of the 9,923 people counted with this name, 99.6% 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 Wes?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Wes is White at 84.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.0%) and Black (3.8%). 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 Wes most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Wes in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.6% (8,400 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 Wes in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Wes a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Wes 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 Wes still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Wes 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 Wes 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 named Wes?
Want to know how many people have the name Wes? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.