Winnie
A diminutive form of the English name Winifred meaning "gentle friend".
Name Census estimates that about 8,906 living Americans carry the first name Winnie. It is a predominantly female name (99.1% of registrations). The average person named Winnie today is around 35 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Winnie births was 2024 (551 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Winnie. 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 Winnie with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Winnie is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 228 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
8.9K
~ 1 in 38,486 Americans
Peak year
2024
551 babies that year
Average age
35
years old
1948 SSA rank
#550
Tracked since 1880
Census
Winnie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 11,307 people with the first name Winnie, which placed it at #2,287 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
#2,287
National first-name rank
People counted
11K
11,307 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
41.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Winnie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Winnie is Asian/Pacific Islander at 41.2%. The next largest groups are White (37.4%) and Black (15.7%). 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 Winnie 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 Winnie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander41.2% · 4,653
- White37.4% · 4,227
- Black or African American15.7% · 1,780
- Hispanic or Latino2.6% · 291
- Two or more races2.2% · 249
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 107
Gender
Gender distribution for Winnie
Out of the 26,688 babies given the name Winnie since 1880, 99.1% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Winnie as a male name
- Ranked #4,192 in 1948
- 5 male births in 1948
- Peak: 1928 (13 births)
Winnie as a female name
- Ranked #550 in 2024
- 551 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (551 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Winnie leans strongly female. 11,186 people counted with this name were female (99.0%), compared with 118 male bearers (1.0%).
Popularity
Winnie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Winnie 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 4,375 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Winnie remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Winnie 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 Winnie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Winnies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 42 states and territories. Texas, Georgia, Mississippi recorded the most babies named Winnie, while South Dakota, New Hampshire, Maine recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 407 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Winnie
The name Winnie derives from the Old English word "wyn," meaning joy, pleasure, or delight. Its origins can be traced back to the 7th century, when it was a common name among the Anglo-Saxons. Winnie is a diminutive form of the name Winifred, which also has roots in Old English and means "blessed peacemaking."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Winnie can be found in the epic poem Beowulf, which dates back to the 8th or 9th century. In this ancient work, a character named Wynfrith is mentioned, which is a variant spelling of Winifred.
During the Middle Ages, the name Winnie gained popularity across Europe, particularly in England and Wales. One notable figure from this period was Winnie, the wife of King Alfred the Great, who ruled from 871 to 899 AD. She played a significant role in the cultural and educational reforms of her husband's reign.
In the 16th century, a famous English explorer named Walter Raleigh had a daughter named Winnie, who was born in 1586. She was named after her maternal grandmother, Winifred.
Another prominent historical figure with the name Winnie was Winnie Davis, the youngest daughter of Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. She was born in 1864 and became known as the "Daughter of the Confederacy" after her father's death.
In the 20th century, one of the most famous individuals with the name Winnie was Winnie-the-Pooh, the beloved fictional bear created by author A.A. Milne in 1926. The character's name was inspired by a Canadian black bear named Winnie, who lived at the London Zoo during World War I and was a popular attraction.
Another notable Winnie was Winnie Mandela, the former wife of Nelson Mandela and a prominent figure in the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. She was born in 1936 and played a crucial role in the struggle for freedom and equality.
People
Winnie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Winnie 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
Winnie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Winnie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 8,906 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Winnie 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 38,486 US residents.
Is Winnie a common name?
We classify Winnie as "Rare". It ranks above 97.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 26,688 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Winnie most popular?
The single biggest year for Winnie was 2024, when 551 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Winnie is about 35 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Winnie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 11,307 people with the name Winnie, or 3.74 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,287 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 Winnie 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 Winnie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Winnie leans strongly female. 11,186 people counted with this name were female (99.0%), compared with 118 male bearers (1.0%). 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 Winnie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Winnie is Asian/Pacific Islander at 41.2%. The next largest groups are White (37.4%) and Black (15.7%). 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 Winnie most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Winnie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 41.2% (4,653 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 Winnie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Winnie a female name?
Yes, 99.1% of people registered as Winnie 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 Winnie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Winnie 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 Winnie 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 common is the name Winnie?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.