Waldo

4,421 people in the United States were counted with the surname Waldo in the 2020 census, making it the 7,266th most common in the country. That is about one person in 67,600.

By the numbers

People: 4,421
Rank: 7,266th
How common: 1 in 67,600
Per 100,000: 1.5

Where the name comes from

Origin a given name

English surname, from the obsolete English given name Waltheof, from Old English weald (“power”) + þēof (“thief”), as in "one who snatched victory from battle." Comparable to, or ultimately Anglicized from the Old Norse equivalent Valthiófr, from vald + *ᚦᛖᚢᛒᚨᛉ. Compare Walthall, Waldie.

Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Who bears the name

How people with the surname Waldo described their own race and Hispanic origin at the 2020 census:

White, not Hispanic 80.0%
Hispanic or Latino 8.5%
Black, not Hispanic 6.8%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 3.0%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 1.1%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.5%

Notable people called Waldo

Peter Waldo (1140–1205)French theologian
Janet Waldo (1919–2016)American actress
Carolyn Waldo (born 1964)Canadian synchronized swimmer

People named Waldo with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).

Surnames like Waldo

Also a first name

Waldo has been given to 5,722 American babies as a first name since 1880, peaking in 1915. See it as a given name.

Try it on yourself

Source: US Census Bureau, Frequently Occurring Surnames, 2020. The Census describes the file as the surnames borne by 100 or more people; rarer names are not published. The line is not quite exact, and 617 published names come in under it, the smallest at 92 people. Race and Hispanic origin are self-reported. Rates are worked out against the 298.9 million people the file's own figures are calculated on, which is fewer than the census counted in all: the difference is everyone whose surname was too rare to publish.