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Wali

#2,448 in 2025Boys' name

Helper, protector, friend

Wali has been given to 1,248 babies in the U.S. since 1951. In 2025 it ranked #2,448 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2016, with 65 recorded.

Babies named Wali, 2025

1 in 59,200

Wali over time, 1880–2025

Boys
02040608018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Wali: meaning, origin, and history

Helper, protector, friend

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Wali means

Wali means “helper, protector, friend”.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,248 boys were recorded with the name Wali between 1951 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 65 in 2016; its best national rank was #1,477 in 1975.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #2,503 in 2020 to #2,448 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #3,018 in 2015 to #2,448 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

How common is Wali?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 59,200
56 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 30,500
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#2,448
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
41,035 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Wali 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 2025 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 41,035 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Wali. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Walis were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Wali was born before 2009 — so the typical Wali is around 16 today.

Median birth year
2009
About 16 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
28.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
61.4%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
1,248
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 28.0% of all recorded uses (350).

Is Wali 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
+877
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+55
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+570
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.44×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
86.2%
Peak was 2016 (65)
Years since peak
9
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
23.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,477
1975

Spellings of Wali

Wali is not the most common spelling — Dale is, with 29.7% against Wali's 0.13%.

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 Wali is used

Across 1910–2025, Wali was most concentrated in New Jersey — about 1 in 50,000 boys, against 1 in 195,591 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

02 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1New Jersey1 in 50,000
  2. 2New York1 in 100,000
  3. 3Virginia1 in 100,000
  4. 4California1 in —
  5. 5Maryland1 in —
  6. 6Pennsylvania1 in —
  7. 7Texas1 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. Wali has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Wali around the world

Where Wali 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
    1998–2025
    #1,093
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    2022–2023
    #728
    in 2023
  • France
    1980–2025
    #6,706
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1994–2024
    #2,134
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    2010–2010
    #754
    in 2010

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Wali by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#2,448
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 55
Best rank ever
#1,477
1975
Peak year
2016
65 that year
First recorded
1951
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
1,248
Count in 2025
56

Names similar to Wali

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

WaltWalidKaliWaldenWaleedWallyWaldoCaliKhaliWaltonWaldemarWaldonDenaliWallisWallenMaliNaftaliWallieWaleNeftaliGhaliWallerWaltherWalker

Sibling names for Wali

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 Wali

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