Name Awesome

Wes

#716 in 2025Boys' name

Short form of Wesley

Wes has been given to 6,786 babies in the U.S. since 1880. In 2025 it ranked #716 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2025, with 376 recorded.

Babies named Wes, 2025

1 in 8,820

Wes over time, 1880–2025

Boys
010020030040018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Wes: meaning, origin, and history

Short form of Wesley

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Wes means

Wes is a short form of Wesley.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Wes → Wesley. The family’s meaning is “west + wood, clearing”, recorded in English with the source elements west and lēah.

Origin, language, and formation

Wes is used in English.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Wesley.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Wes is pronounced /wɛs/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 6,786 boys were recorded with the name Wes between 1880 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 376 in 2025; its best national rank was #630 in 1963.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #991 in 2020 to #716 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #1,265 in 2015 to #716 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.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Wes?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 8,820
376 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 4,540
0.02% of boys
Rank, 2025
#716
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
6,113 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Wes 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 1001%
School of 5006%

Put another way: gather 6,113 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Wes. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Wess were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Wes was born before 2007 — so the typical Wes is around 18 today.

Median birth year
2007
About 18 years old
Biggest decade
2020s
27.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
54.3%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
6,494
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2020s — 27.0% of all recorded uses (1,831).

Is Wes 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
+28
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+275
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+549
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
2.63×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
100.0%
Peak was 2025 (376)
Years since peak
Peaking now
At its all-time high
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
14.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#630
1963

Where Wes is used

Across 2016–2025, Wes was most concentrated in Utah — about 1 in 2,000 boys, against 1 in 6,770 across all states with data. It was least common in Tennessee (1 in 33,333).

350 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Utah1 in 2,000
  2. 2Louisiana1 in 2,174
  3. 3Massachusetts1 in 2,941
  4. 4Minnesota1 in 3,846
  5. 5Pennsylvania1 in 4,545
  6. 6Idaho1 in 4,762
  7. 7Michigan1 in 4,762
  8. 8Washington1 in 4,762

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.

Geographically, Wes is somewhat regional — more concentrated than 76% of the names used widely enough to compare. See the most regional names

Wes around the world

Where Wes 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
    2018–2020
    #4,608
    in 2020
  • France
    2021–2021
    #4,611
    in 2021
  • Canada
    2008–2024
    #706
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1978–2011
    #784
    in 2011

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS 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.

Notable people named Wes

People whose public names include Wes, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Wes in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Wes. Linked forms have their own page here.

Wess

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Wes by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#716
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 275
Best rank ever
#630
1963
Peak year
2025
376 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
6,786
Count in 2025
376

Names similar to Wes

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

WestWestinWessonWestynWeslyWessWestleyWestenWesleeWestlyWesamWestonWeslieWesleyWeslynWestleeWessleyWeslinWestynnWeslanWestlynWestanWeslenWester

Names with a curve like Wes

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Wes, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

BarronMontgomeryHankCalFlintCamGrayRowdyMarcellusDukeRoryOzzie

Sibling names for Wes

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 Wes

Top names of 2025, Wes's peak yearThe 2020s in fullOther names that peaked in 1963Boys' names starting with WThree-Letter Boy NamesThree-Letter Names