Wendall
A masculine name of Old English origin meaning "from the wandering path".
Name Census estimates that about 1,542 living Americans carry the first name Wendall. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Wendall today is around 54 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Wendall births was 1958 (55 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Wendall. 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.
People living today
1.5K
~ 1 in 222,279 Americans
Peak year
1958
55 babies that year
Average age
54
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,786
Tracked since 1904
Census
Wendall in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,453 people with the first name Wendall, which placed it at #9,518 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
#9,518
National first-name rank
People counted
1.5K
1,453 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
70.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Wendall
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Wendall is White at 70.9%. The next largest groups are Black (19.5%) and Two or More Races (3.3%). 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 Wendall 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 Wendall at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White70.9% · 1,030
- Black or African American19.5% · 283
- Two or more races3.3% · 48
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.8% · 41
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.4% · 35
- Hispanic or Latino1.1% · 16
Gender
Gender distribution for Wendall
Out of the 2,431 babies given the name Wendall since 1880, 99.8% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Wendall as a male name
- Ranked #9,790 in 2024
- 8 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1958 (55 births)
Wendall as a female name
- Ranked #6,786 in 1967
- 6 female births in 1967
- Peak: 1967 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Wendall leans strongly male. 1,425 people counted with this name were male (97.5%), compared with 36 female bearers (2.5%).
Popularity
Wendall: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Wendall from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 431 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Wendall 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 Wendall during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Wendalls live
The SSA's state-level files cover 11 states and territories. Texas, Georgia, Iowa recorded the most babies named Wendall, while Oklahoma, Maine, Louisiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 13 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Wendall
The name Wendall has its origins in the Old English language, derived from the elements "wend" meaning "to go" or "to travel," and "heal" meaning "hall" or "dwelling." It is believed to have first emerged in the 7th or 8th century among the Anglo-Saxon inhabitants of what is now England.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of land ownership and population in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. Here, the name is spelled as "Wendel," referring to a landowner in the county of Oxfordshire.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the name Wendall maintained a modest presence, particularly among the nobility and gentry of England. Notable bearers of the name included Wendall of Crich, a 13th-century knight from Derbyshire, and Wendall Atte Wode, a 14th-century landowner in Kent.
As the name spread across Europe, it took on various spelling variations, such as Wendel, Wendelin, and Wendelinus. In Germany, the name gained particular popularity and was associated with Saint Wendelin, a 7th-century Irish monk and missionary venerated in parts of Bavaria and Austria.
In the 16th century, the name Wendall found its way to the American colonies, carried by English settlers. One of the earliest recorded instances is Wendall Browne, who arrived in Virginia in 1635 and later served as a member of the House of Burgesses.
Throughout the centuries, several notable individuals have borne the name Wendall. These include:
1. Wendall Phillips (1811-1884), an American abolitionist, advocate for Native American rights, and orator known for his fiery speeches against slavery.
2. Wendall Willkie (1892-1944), an American businessman, lawyer, and politician who was the Republican nominee for President in 1940, challenging Franklin D. Roosevelt.
3. Wendall Hertig (1910-1973), an American football player and coach who led the University of Pittsburgh to two Sugar Bowl victories in the 1930s.
4. Wendall Erickson (1919-2006), an American jazz drummer and bandleader who performed with notable artists such as Stan Kenton and Woody Herman.
5. Wendall Garrett (1930-2018), an American politician who served as the Lieutenant Governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975.
While the name Wendall has waxed and waned in popularity over the centuries, it remains a distinctive and intriguing choice, carrying with it a rich history and a connection to the cultural heritage of the Anglo-Saxon world.
People
Wendall + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Wendall 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
Wendall: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Wendall?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,542 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Wendall 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 222,279 US residents.
Is Wendall a common name?
We classify Wendall as "Rare". It ranks above 92.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,431 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Wendall most popular?
The single biggest year for Wendall was 1958, when 55 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Wendall is about 54 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Wendall in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,453 people with the name Wendall, or 0.48 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,518 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 Wendall 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 Wendall?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Wendall leans strongly male. 1,425 people counted with this name were male (97.5%), compared with 36 female bearers (2.5%). 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 Wendall?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Wendall is White at 70.9%. The next largest groups are Black (19.5%) and Two or More Races (3.3%). 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 Wendall most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Wendall in the 2020 Census, accounting for 70.9% (1,030 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 Wendall in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Wendall a male name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Wendall 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 Wendall still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Wendall 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 Wendall 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 named Wendall?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Wendall at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.