Name Awesome

Wilburn

Boys' name

English surname transferred into given-name use

Wilburn has been given to 10,339 babies in the U.S. since 1880. 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 1926, with 317 recorded.

Babies named Wilburn, 2022

1 in 677,000

Wilburn over time, 1880–2025

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Wilburn: meaning, origin, and history

English surname transferred into given-name use

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Wilburn means

Wilburn is a given name.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Wilburn is used in English.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈwɪl.bəɹn/ and /ˈwɪl.bən/ for Wilburn.

The naming story behind Wilburn

Wilburn is a given name adopted from English surname. This establishes the immediate naming route. A surname transfer is different from a direct translation of the modern given-name spelling; the family name may have its own earlier derivation.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 10,324 boys were recorded with the name Wilburn between 1880 and 2022. Its highest annual count was 317 in 1926; its best national rank was #318 in 1926.

In the United States, 15 girls were recorded with the name Wilburn between 1918 and 1934. Its highest annual count was 5 in 1918; its best national rank was #4,950 in 1931.

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 Wilburn?

Wilburn had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2022, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2022
1 in 677,000
5 of 3,385,755 births
Among boys only
1 in 349,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2022
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
469,366 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Wilburn 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 2022 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 469,366 children born in 2022 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Wilburn. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Wilburns were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Wilburn was born before 1931 — so the typical Wilburn is around 94 today.

Median birth year
1931
About 94 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
26.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
0.36%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
1,894
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 26.7% of all recorded uses (2,761).

Is Wilburn 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 1926 (317)
Years since peak
99
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
44.7% average annual change
Best rank ever
#318
1926

Spellings of Wilburn

Wilburn is not the most common spelling — Wilbur is, with 47.9% against Wilburn's 8.7%.

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 Wilburn is used

Across 1910–2025, Wilburn was most concentrated in Arkansas — about 1 in 3,030 boys, against 1 in 12,827 across all states with data. It was least common in Ohio (1 in —).

033 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Arkansas1 in 3,030
  2. 2Alabama1 in 3,571
  3. 3Oklahoma1 in 4,348
  4. 4Tennessee1 in 4,545
  5. 5Kentucky1 in 5,000
  6. 6Mississippi1 in 6,250
  7. 7Georgia1 in 7,143
  8. 8Texas1 in 7,692

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

Notable people named Wilburn

People whose public names include Wilburn, 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.

Wilburn by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#318
1926
Peak year
1926
317 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2022
All-time count
10,324
Count in 2025
Under 5

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#4,950
1931
Peak year
1918
5 that year
First recorded
1918
Last recorded
1934
All-time count
15
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Wilburn

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

WilfordWilfredoWiltonWillianWilderWilfredWilberWilmerWilliamsWilbertWilhelmWillamWillardWillemWileyWilsonWillisWilburWillyWiliamWillaimWilfridWillsonWilburt

Names with a curve like Wilburn

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

BufordWilfordRollandClairLavernMilfordLaverneMaynardDelmerCletusMerrillOdis

Sibling names for Wilburn

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 Wilburn

Top names of 1926, Wilburn's peak yearThe 1920s in fullOther names that peaked in 1926Boys' names starting with W