Name Awesome

Baldwin

Boys' name

Bold friend

Baldwin has been given to 634 babies in the U.S. since 1880. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1965, with 13 recorded.

Babies named Baldwin, 2023

1 in 552,000

Baldwin over time, 1880–2025

Boys
05101518801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Baldwin: meaning, origin, and history

Bold friend

Germanic languages

What Baldwin means

Baldwin means “bold friend”, associated with Balþawiniz.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

From Proto-West Germanic *Balþawini, from Proto-Germanic *Balþawiniz (“bold friend”).

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Baldwin (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Baldwin is used in English. Its origins include Germanic languages.

Baldwin comes through Proto-West Germanic *Balþawini and Proto-Germanic *Balþawiniz.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Baldwin is pronounced /ˈbɔːld.wɪn/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 634 boys were recorded with the name Baldwin between 1880 and 2023. Its highest annual count was 13 in 1965; its best national rank was #922 in 1880.

How common is Baldwin?

Baldwin had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2023, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2023
1 in 552,000
6 of 3,314,783 births
Among boys only
1 in 285,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2023
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
382,940 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Baldwin sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2023 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 382,940 children born in 2023 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Baldwin. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Baldwins were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Baldwin was born before 1967 — so the typical Baldwin is around 58 today.

Median birth year
1967
About 58 years old
Biggest decade
1990s
14.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
25.4%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
419
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1990s — 14.0% of all recorded uses (89).

Is Baldwin rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1965 (13)
Years since peak
60
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
28.9% average annual change
Best rank ever
#922
1880

Spellings of Baldwin

Baldwin is not the most common spelling — Alwin is, with 32.2% against Baldwin's 22.7%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Baldwin is used

Across 1910–2025, Baldwin was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 1,182,944 across all states with data. It was least common in New York (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —
  2. 2New York1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Baldwin has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Baldwin around the world

Where Baldwin ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2012–2012
    #4,805
    in 2012
  • South Australia
    1984–1986
    #460
    in 1986

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Baldwin by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#922
1880
Peak year
1965
13 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2023
All-time count
634
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Baldwin

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

BallardBalianBaldemarBaldomeroGodwinBaltazarChadwinBalthazarSherwinAlwinBalinLudwinAshwinDurwinOswinKerwinBalamGoodwinLewinDorwinArwinBalmoreRowinMarwin

Sibling names for Baldwin

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Baldwin

Top names of 1965, Baldwin's peak yearThe 1960s in fullOther names that peaked in 1880Boys' names starting with BMedieval Names