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
Census
Wilton in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,081 people with the first name Wilton, which placed it at #4,527 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
#4,527
National first-name rank
People counted
4.1K
4,081 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
48.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Wilton
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Wilton is White at 48.3%. The next largest groups are Black (27.1%) and Hispanic (17.6%). 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 Wilton 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 Wilton at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White48.3% · 1,971
- Black or African American27.1% · 1,107
- Hispanic or Latino17.6% · 718
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.8% · 154
- Two or more races2.0% · 81
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 50
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)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Wilton appears almost entirely male. Of the 4,071 people counted with this name, 99.4% were male and only a very small share were female.
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.
How common was Wilton in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,081 people with the name Wilton, or 1.35 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,527 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 Wilton 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 Wilton?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Wilton appears almost entirely male. Of the 4,071 people counted with this name, 99.4% 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 Wilton?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Wilton is White at 48.3%. The next largest groups are Black (27.1%) and Hispanic (17.6%). 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 Wilton most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Wilton in the 2020 Census, accounting for 48.3% (1,971 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 Wilton in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
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.
Is Wilton still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Wilton 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 Wilton 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 Wilton as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Wilton on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.