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Wolf

#1,902 in 2025Boys' name

Wolf

Wolf has been given to 1,658 babies in the U.S. since 1912. In 2025 it ranked #1,902 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2021, with 107 recorded.

Babies named Wolf, 2025

1 in 39,900

Wolf over time, 1880–2025

Boys
05010015018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Wolf: meaning, origin, and history

Wolf

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Wolf means

Wolf means “wolf”.

Meaning behind the documented name family

Wolf is a short form of Wolfgang. Wolfgang has more than one origin or interpretation.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

From Middle English and German short forms of given names containing the Germanic element "wolf".

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Wolf (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Wolf is used in English and German.

Wolf comes through Middle English and.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Wolfgang and ulv.

Pronunciation and spelling

In German, Wolf is pronounced /vɔlf/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,658 boys were recorded with the name Wolf between 1912 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 107 in 2021; its best national rank was #1,605 in 2021.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #1,829 in 2020 to #1,902 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #2,231 in 2015 to #1,902 in 2025.

How common is Wolf?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 39,900
83 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 20,600
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#1,902
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
27,687 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Wolf 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 5001%

Put another way: gather 27,687 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Wolf. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Wolfs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Wolf was born before 2016 — so the typical Wolf is around 9 today.

Median birth year
2016
About 9 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
33.5% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
78.0%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
1,653
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 33.5% of all recorded uses (555).

Is Wolf 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
−83
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−73
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
+329
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.36×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
77.6%
Peak was 2021 (107)
Years since peak
4
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
19.2% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,605
2021

Spellings of Wolf

Wolf is not the most common spelling — Cole is, with 56.9% against Wolf's 0.61%.

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 Wolf is used

Across 2016–2025, Wolf was most concentrated in New York — about 1 in 6,667 boys, against 1 in 16,117 across all states with data. It was least common in Washington (1 in 100,000).

115 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1New York1 in 6,667
  2. 2California1 in 11,111
  3. 3Florida1 in 25,000
  4. 4Massachusetts1 in 25,000
  5. 5Colorado1 in 50,000
  6. 6New Jersey1 in 50,000
  7. 7Texas1 in 50,000
  8. 8Washington1 in 100,000

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.

Wolf around the world

Where Wolf 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
    2005–2025
    #1,613
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    2020–2020
    #711
    in 2020
  • France
    1912–2022
    #5,546
    in 2022
  • Canada
    1995–2024
    #2,134
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    2011–2012
    #771
    in 2012

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

Wolf by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#1,902
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 73
Best rank ever
#1,605
2021
Peak year
2021
107 that year
First recorded
1912
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
1,658
Count in 2025
83

Names similar to Wolf

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

RolfWolfeAdolfWolfgangRudolfRandolfWolframVolfWolfordIngolfWolcottWolfric

Sibling names for Wolf

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 Wolf

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