Wilder
One who lives in the wild or countryside; woodsman; unrestrained.
Name Census estimates that about 7,813 living Americans carry the first name Wilder. It sits at #392 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (92.6% of registrations). The average person named Wilder today is around 8 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Wilder births was 2021 (978 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Wilder. 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 Wilder with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Wilder is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 8 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
7.8K
~ 1 in 43,870 Americans
Peak year
2021
978 babies that year
Average age
8
years old
2024 SSA rank
#392
Tracked since 1914
Census
Wilder in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,717 people with the first name Wilder, which placed it at #4,092 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
#4,092
National first-name rank
People counted
4.7K
4,717 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
58.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Wilder
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Wilder is White at 58.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (33.0%) and Two or More Races (4.6%). 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 Wilder 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 Wilder at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White58.6% · 2,765
- Hispanic or Latino33.0% · 1,555
- Two or more races4.6% · 217
- Black or African American2.9% · 139
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 21
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 20
Gender
Gender distribution for Wilder
Wilder leans heavily male at 92.6% of total registrations, but 595 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Wilder as a male name
- Ranked #392 in 2024
- 830 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (890 births)
Wilder as a female name
- Ranked #3,259 in 2024
- 49 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (89 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Wilder leans strongly male. 4,432 people counted with this name were male (94.0%), compared with 283 female bearers (6.0%).
Popularity
Wilder: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Wilder from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 4,385 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
Wilder 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 Wilder during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Wilders live
The SSA's state-level files cover 47 states and territories. California, Texas, Tennessee recorded the most babies named Wilder, while District of Columbia, Nevada, Rhode Island recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 134 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Wilder
The given name Wilder originated as a German surname derived from the Middle High German word "wildern," which means "to hunt" or "to roam." This term was initially used to describe someone who lived in the wilderness or hunted in the wild.
The name Wilder can be traced back to the 13th century in Germanic regions, where it was commonly used as a descriptive surname for those who lived in remote, forested areas or made a living through hunting and trapping.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Wilder dates back to 1273 in the town of Nuremberg, Germany, where a man named Conradus Wilderer was mentioned in a legal document.
Throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance periods, the name Wilder was particularly prevalent in Germanic-speaking regions of Europe, such as Germany, Switzerland, and Austria.
One notable historical figure with the name Wilder was Wilder von Rappoltstein, a 14th-century German knight and military commander who fought in the Hundred Years' War against France.
In the 16th century, the name Wilder was also found in England, likely brought over by Germanic settlers or mercenaries. One example is William Wilder, an English merchant and explorer who traveled to the West Indies and the Americas in the late 1500s.
Another famous bearer of the name was Johann Wilder, a 17th-century German composer and organist known for his contributions to the development of Baroque music.
In the 19th century, the name Wilder gained popularity in the United States, particularly among families with German or Swiss ancestry. One prominent individual was Wilder Dwight, an American educator and author who founded the Knickerbacker Lyceum in New York in 1832.
Lastly, one of the most renowned figures with the name Wilder was Thornton Wilder, the celebrated American playwright and novelist who won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1928 for his novel "The Bridge of San Luis Rey." He was born in 1897 and passed away in 1975.
People
Wilder + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Wilder 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
Wilder: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Wilder?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 7,813 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Wilder 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 43,870 US residents.
Is Wilder a common name?
We classify Wilder as "Rare". It ranks above 97.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 8,042 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Wilder most popular?
The single biggest year for Wilder was 2021, when 978 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Wilder is about 8 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Wilder in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,717 people with the name Wilder, or 1.56 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,092 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 Wilder 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 Wilder?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Wilder leans strongly male. 4,432 people counted with this name were male (94.0%), compared with 283 female bearers (6.0%). 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 Wilder?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Wilder is White at 58.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (33.0%) and Two or More Races (4.6%). 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 Wilder most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Wilder in the 2020 Census, accounting for 58.6% (2,765 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 Wilder in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Wilder a male name?
Yes, 92.6% of people registered as Wilder 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 Wilder still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Wilder 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 Wilder 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 the name Wilder?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Wilder, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.