A Case for the Letter: W

After working on the Case for the Letter B, I was perusing names and decided to work on the letter W next. Actually, it was the name Wealthy that caught my eye. I continue to be amazed at the names people give their children. Not in a judgmental way, of course. Just an amazement at the creativity and gumption some parents have. And they are not alone since the names that make the list are those given to at least five babies in a given year. I will be going through the alphabet doing these Case for the Letter posts slowly but surely.  It will be fun to see what names pop up.

Top W Names Per Decade
The following are lists of the most popular W names in the top 200 for each decade since the 1880s. I make observations after each decade of the differences between that decade and the one prior. Taking a quick look at them, you can see that the top girl W name goes from Willie to Whitney and the top boy W name never changes.

1880s
89 Willie
161 Winifred
190 Winnie

2 William
13 Walter
26 Will
30 Willie
95 Warren
106 Willis
118 Wesley
134 Wallace
144 Willard
147 Wilbur
183 Wiley
195 Wilson

Would you have guessed that the most popular girl W name at the turn of the century was Willie? Probably named after her father or grandfather William, Willie was in the top 100 for the decades of the 1880s through the 1920s. William has been the top W name for boys ever since the 1880s, with no contender really coming close. Will, Willie, Willis, Willard, Wilbur and Wilson all have the same first syllable as William, while the "Win" syllable starts two of the three top girl names. Names that begin with W have been and continue to be more popular to use on boys than girls; no more than four names that begin with W make up the top 200 for girls in each decade.

1890s
75 Willie
175 Winifred
183 Winnie

2 William
13 Walter
18 Willie
40 Will
115 Warren
120 Wesley
123 Willis
130 Willard
135 Wallace
138 Wilbur

Wiley and Wilson fall off the list for the boys.  The rest remains the same from the previous decade.

1900s
61 Willie
147 Wilma
183 Winifred

2 William
12 Walter
14 Willie
77 Will
117 Wilbur
119 Willard
124 Warren
128 Wesley
130 Wallace
146 Willis
168 Wayne

We trade Winnie for Wilma on the girls' side, and add Wayne to the boys' side.

1910s
66 Willie
90 Wilma
150 Wanda

2 William
11 Walter
26 Willie
67 Woodrow
96 Wilbur
97 Warren
98 Wayne
122 Wallace
134 Wesley
138 Willis
145 Wilson
171 Wilbert
177 Wilfred

Winifred drops in favor of Wanda for the girls. Wilson, Wilbert and Wilfred make the list, while Will and Willard fall out. But the biggest movement comes from Woodrow, who made a huge jump onto the field at #67. Looking at individual years, Woodrow rose from #234 in 1911 to #46 in 1912 and remains in the top 100 until 1920. Probably not coincidentally, Woodrow Wilson won the presidential election in 1912 and was President of the United States until 1921. You may also note this as a reason Wilson re-enters the top 200.

1920s
68 Wilma
72 Willie
76 Wanda
180 Winifred

4 William
16 Walter
28 Willie
51 Warren
73 Wayne
92 Wallace
97 Willard
114 Wilbur
135 Wesley
142 Willis
175 Wilbert
193 Wilfred

Wilma takes over the top stop for the girls, and Winifred re-enters.  Woodrow and Wilson drop completely from the top 200, and Willard re-enters.

1930s
50 Wanda
75 Wilma
104 Willie

4 William
22 Walter
33 Willie
49 Wayne
101 Warren
128 Wallace
131 Willard
146 Wesley
164 Wilbur
173 Willis

Wanda now takes over the top spot and remains there until the 1960s. Winifred falls again. The number of top 200 boy W names begins to fall with both Wilbert and Wilfred exiting the list.

1940s
56 Wanda
129 Wilma
148 Willie

4 William
27 Walter
33 Wayne
38 Willie
107 Warren
161 Wesley
166 Wallace
172 Willard
197 Wendell

Nothing really changes for the girls. Wendell enters the top 200 at the expense of Wilbur and Willis.

1950s
59 Wanda
102 Wendy

6 William
43 Wayne
51 Walter
53 Willie
132 Warren
165 Wesley

Wendy makes an entrance, and Wilma and Willie leave the top 200 on the girls' side. Wallace, Willard and Wendell all exit on the boys' side.

1960s
48 Wendy
81 Wanda

7 William
63 Wayne
82 Walter
92 Willie
162 Wesley
165 Warren

Wendy takes over the top spot for the girls. No real change for the boys.

1970s
36 Wendy
197 Wanda

9 William
105 Walter
112 Wayne
117 Willie
121 Wesley

Another uneventful move into a new decade, with Warren being the only change and that was to leave the field.

1980s
64 Whitney
135 Wendy

15 William
97 Wesley
159 Walter
163 Willie
181 Wayne

Whitney comes out of no where to take the top spot from Wendy, and Wanda moves off the girls' top 200 list. The SSA records a jump for Whitney from #124 in 1984 to #73 in 1985, and then up to #32 in 1986. The most famous Whitney I know (besides Eli Whitney) is Miss Houston. Whitney Houston's debut album was released in February 1985, and topped the Billboard charts in 1986. Nothing really changes for the boys except Wesley moving up from the last top W name to the second.

1990s
99 Whitney

18 William
127 Wesley
180 Wyatt

Wendy drops out of the top 200 for the girls. As for the boys, Wyatt makes his entrance as Walter, Willie and Wayne make their exits. Interestingly, Wyatt jumped from #375 in 1993 to #197 in 1994; 1994 was when the movie Wyatt Earp staring Kevin Costner was released.

2000s
No top 200 names for girls

10 William
84 Wyatt
184 Wesley

And finally, not one girl W name makes the top 200. No names enter or exit on the boys' side, but Wyatt jumps quite a bit from #180 to #84.

If you would like to see the birth numbers of these top 200 names, click here.

A Top 5 W Name?
Not surprisingly, William was in the top 5 quite a bit. He was #2 from 1880 through 1920 (with a brief stint at #3 in 1910), #3 through 1925, and #4 through 1949. William then left the top 5 until it was #5 in 2009 and 2010 and #3 in 2011. There were no girl W names in the top 5.

Unique Names
There are a lot of interesting names on this list, a lot of nouns and tradesmen names. But what I observed the most are the surnames. Winthrop, Wellington, Wentworth, Westmoreland, Whitaker, and Whitman are just some of the examples of surnames starting with W that are used as first names.

1880s
Wealthy
Wren

Waldo
Wash
Waverly (M)
Weaver
Webb
Wellington
Wenzel
Wheeler
Whit
Winthrop
Wm (for William?)
Woodie, Woody
Worley
Worth
Wright

1890s
Walsie
Wave
Wilsie

Waddie

1900s
Wava
Wavie, Wavy
Wessie
Wilmoth
Woodie

Waino
Wing
Worthy

1910s
Waldine
Walterine
Waveline
Wealtha
Welcome
Westonia
Willodean
Wintress

Waco
Waitman
Wales
Warwick
Welcome
Wentworth
Westmoreland
White
Wick
Willoughby
Wingate
Wise
Wister
Wolf
Woodfin

1920s
Wavelene
Wilder
Wyoming

Wah
Warden
Waring
Webber
Western
Wheaton
Wilder
Windsor, Winsor
Winfrey
Wood

1930s
Wendolyn

Welby
Wendolyn
Wilkie
Willies
Wolfgang

1940s
Willistine
Windy
Winsome
Wrayanne

Wane
Wassillie
Wells
Whalen
Whitaker
Whitman
Wiltz
Wyndham

1950s
Wander
Wardean
Winter
Wonder

Wagner
Warrick

1960s
Wednesday

1970s
Whisper
Wyconda
Wysteria

1980s
Weatherly

Wisdom

1990s
Wachovia

2000s
Wake
Wakefield
Winner

2010s
Nothing found

W for Twinkies
In a recent episode of Castle, there were twins named Wendell and Wendy. Wow. Not sure how many times those names have been used for twins, but here are some other W names that were used frequently in 2011: William and Elizabeth 8 (boy/girl), William and Benjamin 12, and William and Henry 12.

The Numbers
I calculated the number of W names used as a percentage of total names and their various spellings used per year (that's all names recorded by SSA, given to five or more babies). I'm calling this the Percentage of W Names Used. The most W names were used in 1881 with 3.57%. The least W names were used in 2006 with 0.62%. Looking at those numbers, you can definitely see a decrease in the use of W names since the 1880s. It has been a gradual decrease, which is no surprise after seeing the top W names per decade. A look at all of the numbers can be seen here.

The total number of babies with W names as a percentage each year is called the Percentage of W-Named Babies. This number does vary from the previous number I mentioned. For instance, in 2011, the Percentage of W Names Used was 0.65% and the Percentage of W-Named Babies was 1.15%.

Thank you for reading my Case for the Letter W! Please share any thoughts or observations you may have, along with your favorite W name of all time.