Wrigley
A masculine English given name of uncertain meaning, possibly related to a wriggling movement.
Name Census estimates that about 955 living Americans carry the first name Wrigley. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 58.8% of registrations being male. The average person named Wrigley today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Wrigley births was 2017 (122 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Wrigley. 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
955
~ 1 in 358,905 Americans
Peak year
2017
122 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,987
Tracked since 2003
Census
Wrigley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 701 people with the first name Wrigley, which placed it at #16,182 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
#16,182
National first-name rank
People counted
701
701 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
87.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Wrigley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Wrigley is White at 87.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.8%) and Two or More Races (4.3%). 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 Wrigley 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 Wrigley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White87.9% · 616
- Hispanic or Latino5.8% · 41
- Two or more races4.3% · 30
- Black or African American0.9% · 6
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 3
Gender
Gender distribution for Wrigley
Wrigley is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 962 total registrations, 566 (58.8%) were male and 396 (41.2%) were female.
Wrigley as a male name
- Ranked #2,987 in 2024
- 42 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2017 (57 births)
Wrigley as a female name
- Ranked #5,759 in 2024
- 22 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2017 (65 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Wrigley on both sides of the split. Of the 706 people counted with this name, 414 were male (58.6%) and 292 were female (41.4%).
Popularity
Wrigley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Wrigley from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 529 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Wrigley remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Wrigley 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 Wrigley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Wrigleys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. Indiana, Illinois, Tennessee recorded the most babies named Wrigley, while Iowa, Tennessee, Illinois recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 21 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Wrigley
The name Wrigley is an English surname that originated as a place name, referring to a location called "Wrigley" in the historic county of Lancashire, England. The name itself is derived from the Old English words "wri" meaning "twisted" and "leah" meaning "clearing" or "meadow," suggesting that it may have referred to a twisted or winding meadow or clearing in a wooded area.
While the name Wrigley is primarily known as a surname, it has also been used as a given name, although its origins as a first name are relatively obscure. There is no clear historical evidence of the name being used as a given name in ancient texts, religious scriptures, or early historical records.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Wrigley being used as a first name is in the late 19th century. William Wrigley Jr., the founder of the Wrigley Company and the creator of the famous Wrigley's chewing gum, was born in 1861 and given the first name Wrigley, likely derived from his family's surname.
Another notable figure who bore the first name Wrigley was Wrigley Field, an American professional baseball player who played in the early 20th century. Born in 1890, he played for several teams, including the Philadelphia Athletics and the Boston Red Sox.
In the literary world, Wrigley Howard, an American writer and professor, was born in 1905 and published several works of fiction and non-fiction during his lifetime.
Moving into the realm of politics, Wrigley Sivertsen was a Norwegian politician who served as a member of the Storting (the Norwegian parliament) in the 1970s and 1980s.
Finally, Wrigley Fairclough was an English footballer who played as a forward for various clubs in the early 20th century, including Liverpool and Burnley. He was born in 1895 and played professionally until the late 1920s.
While the name Wrigley is not as common as a first name compared to its usage as a surname, these examples highlight its occasional use throughout history, particularly in the United States and England, where the surname Wrigley has its origins.
People
Wrigley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Wrigley 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
Wrigley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Wrigley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 955 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Wrigley 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 358,905 US residents.
Is Wrigley a common name?
We classify Wrigley as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 962 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Wrigley most popular?
The single biggest year for Wrigley was 2017, when 122 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Wrigley is about 10 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Wrigley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 701 people with the name Wrigley, or 0.23 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #16,182 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 Wrigley 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 Wrigley?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Wrigley on both sides of the split. Of the 706 people counted with this name, 414 were male (58.6%) and 292 were female (41.4%). 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 Wrigley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Wrigley is White at 87.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.8%) and Two or More Races (4.3%). 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 Wrigley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Wrigley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 87.9% (616 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 Wrigley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Wrigley a male name?
Yes, 58.8% of people registered as Wrigley 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 Wrigley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Wrigley 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 Wrigley 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 Wrigley?
See how many people have the name Wrigley on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.