Wylder
A name of English origin meaning "someone from the wild deer leaps."
Name Census estimates that about 2,293 living Americans carry the first name Wylder. It is a predominantly male name (91.1% of registrations). The average person named Wylder today is around 6 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Wylder births was 2024 (430 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Wylder. 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 Wylder with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Wylder is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 6 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
2.3K
~ 1 in 149,479 Americans
Peak year
2024
430 babies that year
Average age
6
years old
2024 SSA rank
#680
Tracked since 2005
Census
Wylder in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 723 people with the first name Wylder, which placed it at #15,793 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
#15,793
National first-name rank
People counted
723
723 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
82.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Wylder
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Wylder is White at 82.6%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (8.2%) and Hispanic (7.7%). 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 Wylder 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 Wylder at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White82.6% · 597
- Two or more races8.2% · 59
- Hispanic or Latino7.7% · 56
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 10
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.1% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Wylder
Wylder leans heavily male at 91.1% of total registrations, but 206 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Wylder as a male name
- Ranked #680 in 2024
- 400 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (400 births)
Wylder as a female name
- Ranked #4,643 in 2024
- 30 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (36 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Wylder leans strongly male. 646 people counted with this name were male (88.7%), compared with 82 female bearers (11.3%).
Popularity
Wylder: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Wylder from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 1,570 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
Wylder 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 Wylder during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Wylders live
The SSA's state-level files cover 38 states and territories. California, Texas, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Wylder, while Wyoming, Vermont, Nebraska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 38 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Wylder
The name Wylder has its origins in the Old English language, dating back to the Anglo-Saxon period in Britain, around the 5th to 11th centuries AD. It is derived from the Old English words "wilde" meaning "wild, untamed" and "deor" meaning "deer" or "animal." Thus, the name Wylder originally referred to someone who lived in or frequented the wilderness, perhaps a hunter or forester.
While the name Wylder itself is not found in many ancient texts or historical records, its component parts have roots in Germanic and Norse languages. Variations of the name, such as Wildermer and Wildermere, were recorded in medieval England, particularly in regions like Yorkshire and Lancashire.
One of the earliest known individuals named Wylder was a 12th-century English lord, Wylder of Egremont, who held lands in Cumbria during the reign of King Henry II. Another notable bearer of the name was Sir Wylder Fortescue, a 14th-century English knight who fought in the Hundred Years' War against France.
In the 16th century, a Wylder Brooke was recorded as a prominent merchant and landowner in the city of Bristol. A century later, Wylder Smythe, born in 1635, was a respected clergyman and author of religious texts in Gloucestershire.
During the 18th century, Wylder Whitmore, born in 1722, was a prominent British architect who designed several notable buildings in London, including the Royal Academy of Arts.
In the 19th century, Wylder Hartley, born in 1845, was a renowned English explorer and naturalist who made significant contributions to the study of flora and fauna in Africa and Asia.
Throughout history, the name Wylder has been associated with a spirit of adventure, exploration, and a connection to nature. While not as common as some other names, it has a rich heritage rooted in the language and culture of the Anglo-Saxon people.
People
Wylder + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Wylder 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
Wylder: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Wylder?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,293 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Wylder 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 149,479 US residents.
Is Wylder a common name?
We classify Wylder as "Rare". It ranks above 94.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,309 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Wylder most popular?
The single biggest year for Wylder was 2024, when 430 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Wylder is about 6 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Wylder in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 723 people with the name Wylder, or 0.24 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,793 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 Wylder 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 Wylder?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Wylder leans strongly male. 646 people counted with this name were male (88.7%), compared with 82 female bearers (11.3%). 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 Wylder?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Wylder is White at 82.6%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (8.2%) and Hispanic (7.7%). 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 Wylder most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Wylder in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.6% (597 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 Wylder in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Wylder a male name?
Yes, 91.1% of people registered as Wylder 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 Wylder still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Wylder 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 Wylder 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 Wylder?
Want to know how many people have the name Wylder? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.