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Walford vs Walker

American parents have registered 48,951 Walkers since 1880, against 8 Walfords. Walker is still ahead, with 4,303 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Walford against Walker, 1880 to 2025 0 1.3k 2.5k 3.8k 5k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Walford Walker

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

Walker 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 1925, when Walford had 8 and Walker had 108.

Side by side

  Walford Walker
Total US births 848,951
Most in one year 84,408
Babies in 2025 under 54,303
Estimated living today 044,000
Median age today 1006
Peak year 19252022
Best rank 3,155th boys78th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked78th
First recorded 19251880
Girls / boys 0 / 81,037 / 47,914

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 Walfords alive today are over 100; half the Walkers are over 6. That is 94 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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