Welles
#2,984 in 2025Boys' nameMeaning not yet documented
Welles has been given to 480 babies in the U.S. since 1915. In 2025 it ranked #2,984 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2021, with 56 recorded.
Babies named Welles, 2025
1 in 78,900
Welles over time, 1880–2025
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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.
How common is Welles?
Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.
- Among all babies, 2025
- 1 in 78,900
- 42 of 3,315,165 births
- Among boys only
- 1 in 40,700
- <0.01% of boys
- Rank, 2025
- #2,984
- of 13,926 boys’ names in use
- Coin-flip room size
- 54,713 kids
- Even odds of a second one
Where Welles sits on the popularity scale
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.
Put another way: gather 54,713 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Welles. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.
When Welless were born
Half of everyone ever recorded as Welles was born before 2020 — so the typical Welles is around 5 today.
- Biggest decade
- 2020s
- 50.4% of all use
- Born in the last 25 years
- 97.9%
- A modern name
- Recorded since 1950
- 460
- People you could plausibly meet
2020s — 50.4% of all recorded uses (237).
Is Welles 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
- +613
- Places climbed
- Rank vs 5 years ago
- +425
- Places climbed
- Rank vs 10 years ago
- +2,062
- Places climbed
- Births vs 10 years ago
- 2.21×
- More babies than then
- Share of its own peak
- 75.0%
- Peak was 2021 (56)
- Years since peak
- 4
- Years
- Year-to-year steadiness
- Volatile
- 28.8% average annual change
Spellings of Welles
Welles is not the most common spelling — Wesley is, with 63.5% against Welles's 0.12%.
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 Welles is used
Across 1910–2025, Welles was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 1,392,302 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).
Most concentrated
- 1California1 in —
- 2Massachusetts1 in —
- 3New York1 in —
- 4Ohio1 in —
- 5Pennsylvania1 in —
- 6Texas1 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. Welles has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.
Welles by the numbers
The raw record for each sex the name is used for.
As a boy's name
Names similar to Welles
Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.
Sibling names for Welles
Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.