Wylan
A name of Dutch origin meaning "willow tree" or "from the willow wood".
Name Census estimates that about 302 living Americans carry the first name Wylan. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Wylan today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Wylan births was 2009 (16 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Wylan. 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
302
~ 1 in 1,134,948 Americans
Peak year
2009
16 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,689
Tracked since 1997
Census
Wylan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 294 people with the first name Wylan, which placed it at #29,893 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
#29,893
National first-name rank
People counted
294
294 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
74.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Wylan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Wylan is White at 74.1%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.5%) and Hispanic (6.1%). 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 Wylan 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 Wylan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White74.1% · 218
- Two or more races7.5% · 22
- Hispanic or Latino6.1% · 18
- Black or African American5.8% · 17
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.1% · 15
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 4
Popularity
Wylan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Wylan from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 133 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Wylan remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Wylan 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 Wylan 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 Wylan
The name Wylan has its origins in the Old English language, dating back to the Anglo-Saxon period in Britain, which lasted from the 5th to the 11th century AD. It is believed to be derived from the Old English words "wil" meaning "will" or "desire" and "lan" meaning "land" or "estate." This suggests that the name may have originally referred to someone who possessed or desired land or property.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Wylan can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The entry mentions a landowner named Wylan, providing evidence of the name's existence in medieval England.
In the 12th century, there is a record of a monk named Wylan who lived in the monastery of St. Albans in Hertfordshire, England. This suggests that the name was also used within religious circles during that time period.
During the Middle Ages, the name Wylan was particularly prevalent in the counties of Worcestershire and Gloucestershire in the West Midlands region of England. It is recorded in various medieval documents and charters from these areas.
One notable individual bearing the name Wylan was a knight who fought alongside King Edward I during the Welsh Wars in the late 13th century. Records indicate that he was granted lands in Wales for his service to the crown.
Another prominent figure was Wylan of Shrewsbury, a merchant and landowner who lived in the 14th century. He was known for his successful trade ventures and significant landholdings in the area around Shrewsbury, Shropshire.
In the 16th century, there was a Wylan Browne who served as a Member of Parliament for the borough of Ludlow in Shropshire during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.
Moving into the 17th century, Wylan Harding was a notable figure in the English Civil War, serving as a captain in the Parliamentarian forces under Oliver Cromwell.
These examples illustrate the longevity and historical significance of the name Wylan, which has been present in various regions of England for centuries and has been borne by individuals from diverse backgrounds, ranging from knights and landowners to merchants and military figures.
People
Wylan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Wylan 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
Wylan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Wylan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 302 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Wylan 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 1,134,948 US residents.
Is Wylan a common name?
We classify Wylan as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 305 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Wylan most popular?
The single biggest year for Wylan was 2009, when 16 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Wylan is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Wylan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 294 people with the name Wylan, or 0.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #29,893 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 Wylan 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 Wylan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Wylan leans strongly male. 269 people counted with this name were male (93.7%), compared with 18 female bearers (6.3%). 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 Wylan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Wylan is White at 74.1%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.5%) and Hispanic (6.1%). 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 Wylan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Wylan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 74.1% (218 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 Wylan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Wylan a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Wylan 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 Wylan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Wylan 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 Wylan 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 share the name Wylan?
Want to know how many people share the name Wylan? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.