Name Awesome

Wilber

#4,038 in 2025Boys' name

Literal meaning not recorded

Wilber has been given to 6,902 babies in the U.S. since 1880. In 2025 it ranked #4,038 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1919, with 162 recorded.

Babies named Wilber, 2025

1 in 123,000

Wilber over time, 1880–2025

BoysGirls
05010015020018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Wilber: meaning, origin, and history

Literal meaning not recorded

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Wilber means

Wilber is a given name.

Origin, language, and formation

Wilber is used in Spanish.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Spanish, Wilber is pronounced /wilˈbeɾ/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 6,891 boys were recorded with the name Wilber between 1880 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 162 in 1919; its best national rank was #322 in 1882.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #2,977 in 2020 to #4,038 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #2,962 in 2015 to #4,038 in 2025.

In the United States, 11 girls were recorded with the name Wilber between 1929 and 1949. Its highest annual count was 6 in 1929; its best national rank was #4,549 in 1929.

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 Wilber?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 123,000
27 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 63,300
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#4,038
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
85,108 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Wilber 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 85,108 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Wilber. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Wilbers were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Wilber was born before 1933 — so the typical Wilber is around 92 today.

Median birth year
1933
About 92 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
20.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
15.8%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
2,315
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 20.8% of all recorded uses (1,431).

Is Wilber 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
+274
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−1,061
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−1,076
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.68×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
16.7%
Peak was 1919 (162)
Years since peak
106
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
24.7% average annual change
Best rank ever
#322
1882

Spellings of Wilber

Wilber is not the most common spelling — Walter is, with 63.7% against Wilber's 0.70%.

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 Wilber is used

Across 1910–2025, Wilber was most concentrated in Nebraska — about 1 in 11,111 boys, against 1 in 50,876 across all states with data. It was least common in New Jersey (1 in —).

09 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Nebraska1 in 11,111
  2. 2South Carolina1 in 11,111
  3. 3Kansas1 in 20,000
  4. 4Georgia1 in 25,000
  5. 5Missouri1 in 25,000
  6. 6Oklahoma1 in 25,000
  7. 7Virginia1 in 25,000
  8. 8North Carolina1 in 33,333

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. Wilber has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Wilber around the world

Where Wilber 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
    2018–2024
    #5,120
    in 2024

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0.

Notable people named Wilber

People whose public names include Wilber, 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.

Wilber in other languages

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

Wilbur

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

Wilber by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#4,038
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 1,061
Best rank ever
#322
1882
Peak year
1919
162 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
6,891
Count in 2025
27

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#4,549
1929
Peak year
1929
6 that year
First recorded
1929
Last recorded
1949
All-time count
11
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Wilber

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

WilderWiltonWillamWilmerWillemWilfordWillianWillyWilliamsWiliamWileyWilfredoWilsonWillisWilhelmWilburWilfredWilburnWilmarWilbertWillowHeberWilkesWillard

Names with a curve like Wilber

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

OmerHarmonOlenHarlandValentineWaldoJewelRupertElwinNewtonEldenArlie

Sibling names for Wilber

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 Wilber

Top names of 1919, Wilber's peak yearThe 1910s in fullOther names that peaked in 1882Boys' names starting with W