Wendal
Boys' nameMeaning not yet documented
Wendal has been given to 194 babies in the U.S. since 1918. 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 1955, with 11 recorded.
Babies named Wendal, 1987
1 in 721,000
Wendal 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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.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 Wendal?
Wendal had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1987, the last year it was published.
- Among all babies, 1987
- 1 in 721,000
- 5 of 3,605,072 births
- Among boys only
- 1 in 373,000
- <0.01% of boys
- Rank, 1987
- Unranked
- Fewer than 5 uses
- Coin-flip room size
- 499,770 kids
- Even odds of a second one
Where Wendal sits on the popularity scale
Chance at least one other child shares the name
If the other children were drawn at random from the 1987 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.
Put another way: gather 499,770 children born in 1987 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Wendal. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.
When Wendals were born
Half of everyone ever recorded as Wendal was born before 1949 — so the typical Wendal is around 76 today.
- Biggest decade
- 1960s
- 26.3% of all use
- Born in the last 25 years
- 21.1%
- Spread across generations
- Recorded since 1950
- 97
- People you could plausibly meet
1960s — 26.3% of all recorded uses (51).
Is Wendal 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 1955 (11)
- Years since peak
- 70
- Years
- Year-to-year steadiness
- Volatile
- 37.5% average annual change
Spellings of Wendal
Wendal is not the most common spelling — Wendell is, with 39.4% against Wendal's 0.14%.
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.
Wendal by the numbers
The raw record for each sex the name is used for.
Names similar to Wendal
Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.
Sibling names for Wendal
Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.