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Waldo vs Walfred

American parents have registered 5,722 Waldos since 1880, against 227 Walfreds. Waldo is still ahead, with 6 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Waldo against Walfred, 1880 to 2025 0 50 100 150 200 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Waldo Walfred

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Waldo has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1912, when Waldo had 79 and Walfred had 15.

Side by side

  Waldo Walfred
Total US births 5,722227
Most in one year 17419
Babies in 2025 6under 5
Estimated living today 1,5006
Median age today 5989
Peak year 19151920
Best rank 407th boys1,820th boys
Rank in 2025 10,695thunranked
First recorded 18801912
Girls / boys 6 / 5,7160 / 227

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Walfreds alive today are over 89; half the Waldos are over 59. That is 30 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Waldo and Walfred.