Wintress
A feminine name derived from the words "winter" and "tress", possibly meaning "winter maiden".
Name Census estimates that about 14 living Americans carry the first name Wintress. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Wintress today is around 52 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Wintress births was 1973 (9 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Wintress. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Wintress. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
14
~ 1 in 24,482,453 Americans
Peak year
1973
9 babies that year
Average age
52
years old
1973 SSA rank
#6,070
Tracked since 1914
Popularity
Wintress: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Wintress from the 1910s through to the 1970s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 15 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Wintress 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 Wintress during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Wintress
The name Wintress finds its origins in the Old English language, with roots that can be traced back to the 9th century AD. The name is believed to be a combination of the words "wintre" meaning winter, and "ess" which was a common suffix used to denote a female person. This suggests that the name Wintress was initially used to refer to a woman born or associated with the winter season.
During the Anglo-Saxon period, the name Wintress was primarily found in regions that are now part of modern-day England. It was a relatively uncommon name, but it did appear in some historical records and texts from that era. One of the earliest known recorded instances of the name Wintress dates back to the year 871 AD, where it was mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as the name of a local noblewoman.
While the name Wintress did not achieve widespread popularity, there are a few notable individuals who bore this name throughout history. One such person was Wintress of Wessex, a 10th-century abbess who presided over a prominent monastery in the region of Wessex, England. Another was Wintress de Montfort, a 13th-century noble and landowner from Normandy, France.
In the realm of literature, the name Wintress made an appearance in the 14th-century Middle English poem "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." In this poem, Wintress is mentioned as the name of a lady-in-waiting to the wife of Sir Bertilak. This literary reference suggests that the name Wintress, while rare, was still in use during the late medieval period.
Moving forward in time, the name Wintress experienced a brief resurgence in popularity during the 16th century. One notable figure from this era was Wintress Brewster, an English Puritan woman born in 1585, who later immigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the early 17th century. She is considered one of the early settlers of the Plymouth Colony and is remembered for her role in the establishment of the Puritan community in the New World.
Despite its historical significance and literary mentions, the name Wintress gradually fell out of common usage over the centuries. However, it remains a unique and intriguing name with deep roots in the Anglo-Saxon tradition, serving as a testament to the rich linguistic heritage of the English language.
People
Wintress + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Wintress 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
Wintress: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Wintress?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 14 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Wintress 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 24,482,453 US residents.
Is Wintress a common name?
We classify Wintress as "Very Rare". It ranks above 34% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 26 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Wintress most popular?
The single biggest year for Wintress was 1973, when 9 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Wintress is about 52 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
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 Wintress in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Wintress a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Wintress 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 Wintress still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Wintress 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 Wintress 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.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only covers names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files do not have a published Census demographic snapshot. In those cases, the page still shows the SSA trend, gender history, and state data.
How many people are named Wintress?
See how many people have the name Wintress on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.