Winfield
From Old English roots meaning "pasture of friends" or "pleasant field".
Name Census estimates that about 1,647 living Americans carry the first name Winfield. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Winfield today is around 62 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Winfield births was 1916 (125 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Winfield. 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
1.6K
~ 1 in 208,108 Americans
Peak year
1916
125 babies that year
Average age
62
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,798
Tracked since 1880
Census
Winfield in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,676 people with the first name Winfield, which placed it at #8,618 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
#8,618
National first-name rank
People counted
1.7K
1,676 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
74.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Winfield
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Winfield is White at 74.8%. The next largest groups are Black (16.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.0%). 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 Winfield 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 Winfield at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White74.8% · 1,253
- Black or African American16.9% · 283
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.0% · 50
- Two or more races2.4% · 40
- Hispanic or Latino1.8% · 30
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 20
Popularity
Winfield: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Winfield 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 948 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
Winfield 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 Winfield during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Winfields live
The SSA's state-level files cover 20 states and territories. Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey recorded the most babies named Winfield, while North Carolina, Missouri, Louisiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 67 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Winfield
Winfield is an English given name derived from the Old English words "wine" meaning friend and "feld" meaning field or open land. It originated in England during the Anglo-Saxon period, likely as a descriptive name for someone who lived near an open field or vineyard.
The name gained popularity in medieval England, appearing in various historical records and documents from the 12th to 15th centuries. One of the earliest recorded examples is Winfield de Winefeld, a landowner mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086.
In the 13th century, Winfield was the name of a prominent English nobleman, Winfield de Montfort, who fought in the Second Barons' War against King Henry III. He was captured and executed in 1265 after the Battle of Evesham.
During the Renaissance period, the name Winfield was associated with several notable figures. Winfield Scott (1586-1651) was an English clergyman and theologian who served as a chaplain to King Charles I. Winfield Thacker (1609-1669) was an English politician and member of the House of Commons.
In the 18th century, Winfield Scott (1786-1866) was a prominent American military commander who served in the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, and as a general during the American Civil War. He was a presidential candidate in 1852 and is considered one of the most influential military figures in American history.
Another famous bearer of the name was Winfield Hancock (1824-1886), a distinguished American Civil War general who later served as a Democratic nominee for President of the United States in 1880, losing to James A. Garfield.
Winfield Stratton (1837-1918) was an American dwarf performer and entrepreneur who co-founded the Barnum & Bailey Circus and became a celebrated circus attraction known as "General Tom Thumb".
People
Winfield + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Winfield 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
Winfield: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Winfield?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,647 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Winfield 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 208,108 US residents.
Is Winfield a common name?
We classify Winfield as "Rare". It ranks above 92.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,206 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Winfield most popular?
The single biggest year for Winfield was 1916, when 125 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Winfield is about 62 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Winfield in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,676 people with the name Winfield, or 0.55 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,618 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 Winfield 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 Winfield?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Winfield leans strongly male. 1,655 people counted with this name were male (98.9%), compared with 19 female bearers (1.1%). 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 Winfield?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Winfield is White at 74.8%. The next largest groups are Black (16.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.0%). 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 Winfield most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Winfield in the 2020 Census, accounting for 74.8% (1,253 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 Winfield in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Winfield a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Winfield 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 Winfield still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Winfield 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 Winfield 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 Winfield?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.