Winifred
A feminine name of Welsh origin meaning "pure, blessed peacemaker".
Name Census estimates that about 9,197 living Americans carry the first name Winifred. It is a predominantly female name (97.6% of registrations). The average person named Winifred today is around 56 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Winifred births was 1918 (1,640 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Winifred. 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 Winifred with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Winifred is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 1,106 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
9.2K
~ 1 in 37,268 Americans
Peak year
1918
1,640 babies that year
Average age
56
years old
1989 SSA rank
#1,031
Tracked since 1880
Census
Winifred in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 12,407 people with the first name Winifred, which placed it at #2,150 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
#2,150
National first-name rank
People counted
12K
12,407 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
4.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
71.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Winifred
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Winifred is White at 71.9%. The next largest groups are Black (19.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.5%). 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 Winifred 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 Winifred at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White71.9% · 8,920
- Black or African American19.6% · 2,429
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.5% · 432
- Two or more races2.3% · 280
- Hispanic or Latino1.8% · 227
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 119
Gender
Gender distribution for Winifred
Winifred leans heavily female at 97.6% of total registrations, but 1,106 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Winifred as a male name
- Ranked #7,881 in 1989
- 6 male births in 1989
- Peak: 1918 (47 births)
Winifred as a female name
- Ranked #1,031 in 2024
- 244 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1918 (1,593 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Winifred leans strongly female. 12,141 people counted with this name were female (97.8%), compared with 268 male bearers (2.2%).
Popularity
Winifred: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Winifred 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 12,400 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
Winifred 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 Winifred during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Winifreds live
The SSA's state-level files cover 49 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts recorded the most babies named Winifred, while Wyoming, Delaware, New Mexico recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 707 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Winifred
The name Winifred has its origins in the ancient Brythonic Celtic language, which was spoken in parts of what is now England and Wales. It is derived from the Welsh elements "wyn" meaning fair or blessed, and "fryd" meaning mind or spirit. The name can be interpreted to mean "blessed peacemaker" or "pure spirit."
In the 7th century, St. Winifred (also known as Gwenffrewi) was a Welsh medieval saint and virgin martyr who lived in Holywell, Flintshire. According to legend, she was beheaded by a prince after refusing his advances, and where her head fell, a spring emerged. This holy well became a site of pilgrimage and miraculous healings were attributed to its waters.
The earliest recorded example of the name Winifred dates back to the 9th century. It gained popularity in England and Wales during the Middle Ages, particularly after the Norman Conquest, when many Norman names were introduced to Britain.
Throughout history, several notable women have borne the name Winifred. One of the earliest was Winifred, Countess of Nithsdale (1672-1749), a Scottish noblewoman who famously aided her husband's escape from the Tower of London in 1716 after he had been condemned for his role in the Jacobite rising.
Another notable Winifred was Winifred Holtby (1898-1935), an English novelist and feminist who wrote works such as "South Riding" and "The Crowded Street." She was also a campaigner for various social causes, including birth control and women's rights.
In the United States, Winifred Sackville Stoner Jr. (1920-2003) was an American educator and activist who played a significant role in the civil rights movement. She was one of the organizers of the famous Tallahassee bus boycott in the 1950s, which helped inspire the Montgomery bus boycott led by Martin Luther King Jr.
Winifred Atwell (1914-1983) was a British pianist and popular entertainer known for her distinctive "other piano" style. She achieved widespread success in the 1950s and was the first female instrumentalist to have a million-selling album.
Lastly, Winifred Wagner (1897-1980) was the daughter-in-law of the famous German composer Richard Wagner. She was the co-founder and artistic director of the Bayreuth Festival, which showcased Wagner's operas, and played a significant role in promoting and preserving his legacy.
People
Winifred + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Winifred 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
Winifred: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Winifred?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 9,197 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Winifred 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 37,268 US residents.
Is Winifred a common name?
We classify Winifred as "Rare". It ranks above 97.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 45,915 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Winifred most popular?
The single biggest year for Winifred was 1918, when 1,640 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Winifred is about 56 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Winifred in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 12,407 people with the name Winifred, or 4.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,150 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 Winifred 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 Winifred?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Winifred leans strongly female. 12,141 people counted with this name were female (97.8%), compared with 268 male bearers (2.2%). 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 Winifred?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Winifred is White at 71.9%. The next largest groups are Black (19.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.5%). 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 Winifred most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Winifred in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.9% (8,920 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 Winifred in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Winifred a female name?
Yes, 97.6% of people registered as Winifred in the SSA data are female. 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 Winifred still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Winifred 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 Winifred 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 Americans are named Winifred?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.