Wilton
A masculine name derived from an Old English surname meaning "farm town".
Name Census estimates that about 3,581 living Americans carry the first name Wilton. It is a predominantly male name (99.5% of registrations). The average person named Wilton today is around 58 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Wilton births was 1924 (208 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Wilton. 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.
People living today
3.6K
~ 1 in 95,715 Americans
Peak year
1924
208 babies that year
Average age
58
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,358
Tracked since 1880
Gender
Gender distribution for Wilton
Out of the 8,679 babies given the name Wilton since 1880, 99.5% 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.
Wilton as a male name
- Ranked #5,629 in 2024
- 17 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1924 (208 births)
Wilton as a female name
- Ranked #5,358 in 1943
- 5 female births in 1943
- Peak: 1921 (9 births)
Popularity
Wilton: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Wilton 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 1,819 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
Wilton 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 Wilton during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Wiltons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 26 states and territories. Louisiana, North Carolina, Texas recorded the most babies named Wilton, while New Jersey, Iowa, Washington recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 190 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Wilton
The name Wilton has its origins in Old English, deriving from the words "wil" meaning "hill" or "willow," and "tun" meaning "town" or "settlement." This combination suggests that the name may have initially referred to a settlement located near a hill or willow trees. The name can be traced back to the Anglo-Saxon period in Britain, around the 5th to 11th centuries.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Wilton appears in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of landholdings and settlements in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. This document mentions several places named Wilton, including the town of Wilton in Wiltshire, which was an important center for the wool trade during the Middle Ages.
The name Wilton has been associated with several notable individuals throughout history. One of the earliest was Saint Wilton (c. 635–726), a Benedictine monk and the founder of the Abbey of Wilton in Wiltshire. This abbey became an influential center of learning and culture during the Anglo-Saxon period.
Another significant figure was Wilton Dillon (1567–1642), an English diplomat and politician who served as the Lord Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire and Ambassador to the Netherlands. He played a crucial role in negotiating the Treaty of Southampton in 1625, which ended the Anglo-Spanish War.
In the realm of literature, Wilton Lockwood (1861–1914) was an American author and journalist best known for his novels and short stories depicting life in the American West. His works, such as "The Deliverance: A Romance of the Virginia Tobacco Fields" (1904) and "The Beloved Vagabond" (1906), offered a vivid portrayal of the frontier experience.
In the world of sports, Wilton Norman Samson (1923–2015) was a renowned Australian cricketer who played for the Australian national team in the late 1940s and early 1950s. He was known for his aggressive batting style and was part of the famous "Invincibles" Australian team that toured England in 1948.
Another notable figure was Wilton David Felder (1940–2015), an American saxophonist and songwriter who was a member of the acclaimed jazz-funk band The Crusaders. He contributed to numerous albums and was inducted into the Jazz Wall of Fame in 2002.
People
Wilton + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Wilton 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
Wilton: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Wilton?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,581 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Wilton 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 95,715 US residents.
Is Wilton a common name?
We classify Wilton as "Rare". It ranks above 95.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 8,679 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Wilton most popular?
The single biggest year for Wilton was 1924, when 208 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Wilton is about 58 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Wilton a male name?
Yes, 99.5% of people registered as Wilton 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.
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.