Waylen
Anglo-Saxon name meaning "wanderer; wayfarer; traveler on the road."
Name Census estimates that about 2,299 living Americans carry the first name Waylen. It is a predominantly male name (97.3% of registrations). The average person named Waylen today is around 9 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Waylen births was 2023 (410 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Waylen. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • Although Waylen is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 63 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Waylen is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 9 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
2.3K
~ 1 in 149,088 Americans
Peak year
2023
410 babies that year
Average age
9
years old
2024 SSA rank
#796
Tracked since 1947
Census
Waylen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,001 people with the first name Waylen, which placed it at #12,433 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#12,433
National first-name rank
People counted
1.0K
1,001 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
78.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Waylen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Waylen is White at 78.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (6.0%) and Black (5.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Waylen described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Waylen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White78.4% · 785
- Two or more races6.0% · 60
- Black or African American5.7% · 57
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.7% · 37
- Hispanic or Latino3.5% · 35
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.7% · 27
Gender
Gender distribution for Waylen
Waylen leans heavily male at 97.3% of total registrations, but 63 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Waylen as a male name
- Ranked #796 in 2024
- 315 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (402 births)
Waylen as a female name
- Ranked #13,342 in 2024
- 7 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (16 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Waylen leans strongly male. 972 people counted with this name were male (96.8%), compared with 32 female bearers (3.2%).
Popularity
Waylen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Waylen from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 1,294 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Waylen by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Waylen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Waylens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 36 states and territories. Georgia, Florida, Indiana recorded the most babies named Waylen, while Montana, New Hampshire, Iowa recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 35 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Waylen
The given name Waylen is a modern invention, likely derived from a combination of the Old English word "weg" meaning "path" or "road" and the suffix "-len" which is a diminutive ending. It is not a traditional name with deep historical roots, but rather a creative name that has gained popularity in recent decades.
While the name itself does not have a long history, its component parts can be traced back to ancient languages. The Old English word "weg" is related to the Proto-Germanic "wegaz" and the Proto-Indo-European root "wegh-" meaning "to move" or "to carry." This root is also found in words like "wagon," "vehicle," and "weigh."
The earliest recorded use of the name Waylen is relatively recent, with no significant historical figures bearing this name until the 20th century. One of the earliest notable individuals with this name was Waylen Munro Jr. (1924-2017), an American business executive and philanthropist who served as the CEO of Munro Petroleum Company.
Another individual named Waylen was Waylen G. Carpenter (1926-2014), an American politician who served as a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1967 to 1970. Waylen Jennings (1932-2002) was an American country music singer and songwriter, known for hits like "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys."
In the world of sports, there was Waylen Cullum (born 1974), a former American football tight end who played for the Miami Dolphins and the San Francisco 49ers in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Waylen Noyes (born 1948) is an American former professional baseball player who played as a catcher for the Milwaukee Brewers in the 1970s.
While the name Waylen does not have a long historical pedigree, its modern usage and unique combination of elements have contributed to its increasing popularity in recent years. However, due to its relatively recent origins, there are limited historical references or notable figures associated with this name prior to the 20th century.
People
Waylen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Waylen as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with W
Other first names starting with W with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Waylen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Waylen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,299 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Waylen going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 149,088 US residents.
Is Waylen a common name?
We classify Waylen as "Rare". It ranks above 94.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,323 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Waylen most popular?
The single biggest year for Waylen was 2023, when 410 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Waylen is about 9 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Waylen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,001 people with the name Waylen, or 0.33 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,433 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Waylen in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Waylen?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Waylen leans strongly male. 972 people counted with this name were male (96.8%), compared with 32 female bearers (3.2%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Waylen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Waylen is White at 78.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (6.0%) and Black (5.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Waylen most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Waylen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.4% (785 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Waylen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Waylen a male name?
Yes, 97.3% of people registered as Waylen in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Waylen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Waylen in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Waylen can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Waylen?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.