Name Awesome

Wilda

Girls' name

Meaning uncertain in the cited reference

Wilda has been given to 12,774 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 411 recorded.

Babies named Wilda, 2022

1 in 677,000

Wilda over time, 1880–2025

GirlsBoys
020040060018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Wilda: meaning, origin, and history

Meaning uncertain in the cited reference

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Wilda means

Wilda is a given name.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Wilda is used in English.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈwɪl.də/ for Wilda.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 12,759 girls were recorded with the name Wilda between 1880 and 2022. Its highest annual count was 411 in 1926; its best national rank was #327 in 1926.

In the United States, 15 boys were recorded with the name Wilda between 1917 and 1938. Its highest annual count was 5 in 1917; its best national rank was #4,018 in 1938.

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.

How common is Wilda?

Wilda 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 girls only
1 in 328,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2022
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
469,366 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Wilda sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

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 Wilda. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Wildas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Wilda was born before 1929 — so the typical Wilda is around 96 today.

Median birth year
1929
About 96 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
28.6% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
0.15%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
1,731
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 28.6% of all recorded uses (3,643).

Is Wilda 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 (411)
Years since peak
99
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
34.5% average annual change
Best rank ever
#327
1926

Spellings of Wilda

Wilda is not the most common spelling — Linda is, with 55.9% against Wilda's 0.49%.

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 Wilda is used

Across 1910–2025, Wilda was most concentrated in West Virginia — about 1 in 1,429 girls, against 1 in 15,225 across all states with data. It was least common in Wisconsin (1 in —).

070 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1West Virginia1 in 1,429
  2. 2Louisiana1 in 4,348
  3. 3Oklahoma1 in 5,000
  4. 4Kansas1 in 5,882
  5. 5Missouri1 in 6,667
  6. 6Kentucky1 in 7,143
  7. 7Alabama1 in 8,333
  8. 8Mississippi1 in 8,333

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls 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. Wilda has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Wilda around the world

Where Wilda 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.

  • France
    2001–2017
    #6,998
    in 2017

Popularity data from Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0.

Notable people named Wilda

People whose public names include Wilda, 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.

Wilda by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#327
1926
Peak year
1926
411 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2022
All-time count
12,759
Count in 2025
Under 5

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#4,018
1938
Peak year
1917
5 that year
First recorded
1917
Last recorded
1938
All-time count
15
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Wilda

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

WillaZeldaNeldaWilliamGoldaEldaWillowWilmaImeldaGildaWilloVeldaTildaHildaWillieWilliaHuldaWileyWilderWilhelminaMatildaGriseldaNildaMathilda

Names with a curve like Wilda

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

FlorineMargeryAleneLorineMerleRosellaAlleneArlineConcettaMarjoryEddieCorine

Sibling names for Wilda

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 Wilda

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