Humanverse

Wenda vs Wendall

American parents have registered 2,439 Wendalls since 1880, against 1,001 Wendas. Wendall is still ahead, with 8 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Wenda against Wendall, 1880 to 2025 0 15 30 45 60 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Wenda Wendall

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

Of the 113 years in which either name was published, Wendall for 105 years and Wenda for 8 years. The lead changed hands 8 times.

Side by side

  Wenda Wendall
Total US births 1,0012,439
Most in one year 4355
Babies in 2025 under 58
Estimated living today 7801,500
Median age today 6656
Peak year 19561958
Best rank 1,617th girls1,026th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked8,910th
First recorded 19351904
Girls / boys 1,001 / 06 / 2,433

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 Wendas alive today are over 66; half the Wendalls are over 56. That is 10 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: Wenda and Wendall.