Humanverse

Winifred vs Winona

American parents have registered 46,200 Winifreds since 1880, against 12,953 Winonas. But in 2025 it was Winona that was commoner, 466 babies to 284.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Winifred against Winona, 1880 to 2025 0 500 1k 1.5k 2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Winifred Winona

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 146 years in which either name was published, Winifred for 118 years and Winona for 28 years. The lead changed hands 21 times.

16 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.

Side by side

  Winifred Winona
Total US births 46,20012,953
Most in one year 1,640466
Babies in 2025 284466
Estimated living today 11,0006,100
Median age today 6845
Peak year 19182025
Best rank 144th girls627th girls
Rank in 2025 922nd627th
First recorded 18801880
Girls / boys 45,094 / 1,10612,953 / 0

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 Winifreds alive today are over 68; half the Winonas are over 45. That is 23 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.

Both names abroad

Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.

Country Winifred Winona
England and Wales 1,231221
France 25295

Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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