Wilfred
Wilfred is a masculine name of Germanic origin meaning "desires peace".
Name Census estimates that about 9,716 living Americans carry the first name Wilfred. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Wilfred today is around 64 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Wilfred births was 1920 (811 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Wilfred. 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 Wilfred with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Wilfred is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 103 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
9.7K
~ 1 in 35,277 Americans
Peak year
1920
811 babies that year
Average age
64
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,038
Tracked since 1880
Census
Wilfred in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 11,334 people with the first name Wilfred, which placed it at #2,282 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
#2,282
National first-name rank
People counted
11K
11,334 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
46.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Wilfred
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Wilfred is White at 46.5%. The next largest groups are Black (22.8%) and Hispanic (16.7%). 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 Wilfred 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 Wilfred at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White46.5% · 5,267
- Black or African American22.8% · 2,589
- Hispanic or Latino16.7% · 1,898
- Asian and Pacific Islander8.9% · 1,011
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.8% · 313
- Two or more races2.3% · 256
Gender
Gender distribution for Wilfred
Out of the 29,491 babies given the name Wilfred since 1880, 99.7% 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.
Wilfred as a male name
- Ranked #5,038 in 2024
- 20 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1920 (802 births)
Wilfred as a female name
- Ranked #6,877 in 1956
- 5 female births in 1956
- Peak: 1915 (11 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Wilfred appears almost entirely male. Of the 11,337 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Wilfred: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Wilfred 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 7,198 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
Wilfred 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 Wilfred during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Wilfreds live
The SSA's state-level files cover 46 states and territories. New York, Massachusetts, Louisiana recorded the most babies named Wilfred, while Alaska, District of Columbia, Tennessee recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 505 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Wilfred
The name Wilfred originates from the Germanic languages, deriving from the elements "wil" meaning "will" or "desire", and "frid" meaning "peace". It can be translated to mean "desiring peace" or "willful protector". The earliest known spelling was Wilfrid, which was used in ancient Anglo-Saxon England during the 7th century.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name is Saint Wilfrid, a 7th-century Bishop of York who played a significant role in the conversion of pagan Anglo-Saxons to Christianity. He was born around 634 AD and died in 709 AD. His name was also spelled as Wilfrith and Wilfrid.
In the 9th century, the name appeared in the form of Wilfred in the medieval Anglo-Saxon chronicle known as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. This historical record documented important events in early English history.
During the Middle Ages, the name Wilfred was popular among the nobility and ruling classes in various parts of Europe. One notable figure was Wilfred the Hairy, the Count of Barcelona and Urgell, who lived from around 850 AD to 897 AD.
In the 11th century, the name was borne by Wilfred, the Bishop of Coutances in Normandy, who accompanied William the Conqueror during the Norman invasion of England in 1066.
Another famous bearer of the name was Wilfred Owen, the renowned English poet and soldier who lived from 1893 to 1918. He is best known for his powerful and influential war poetry written during World War I.
Throughout history, the name Wilfred has also been found in various spellings such as Wilfrid, Wilfred, Wilfrith, and Wilfред, reflecting the linguistic and cultural influences of different regions.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Wilfred
People
Wilfred + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Wilfred 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
Wilfred: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Wilfred?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 9,716 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Wilfred 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 35,277 US residents.
Is Wilfred a common name?
We classify Wilfred as "Rare". It ranks above 97.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 29,491 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Wilfred most popular?
The single biggest year for Wilfred was 1920, when 811 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Wilfred is about 64 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Wilfred in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 11,334 people with the name Wilfred, or 3.75 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,282 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 Wilfred 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 Wilfred?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Wilfred appears almost entirely male. Of the 11,337 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Wilfred?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Wilfred is White at 46.5%. The next largest groups are Black (22.8%) and Hispanic (16.7%). 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 Wilfred most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Wilfred in the 2020 Census, accounting for 46.5% (5,267 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 Wilfred in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Wilfred a male name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Wilfred 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 Wilfred still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Wilfred 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 Wilfred 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 share the name Wilfred?
You can see how many people have the name Wilfred on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.