Wenonah
Of Native American origin, meaning "she who makes work beautiful".
Name Census estimates that about 154 living Americans carry the first name Wenonah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Wenonah today is around 59 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Wenonah births was 1916 (26 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Wenonah. 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
154
~ 1 in 2,225,678 Americans
Peak year
1916
26 babies that year
Average age
59
years old
2017 SSA rank
#15,794
Tracked since 1903
Census
Wenonah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 291 people with the first name Wenonah, which placed it at #30,113 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
#30,113
National first-name rank
People counted
291
291 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
62.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Wenonah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Wenonah is White at 62.2%. The next largest groups are Black (12.7%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (9.3%). 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 Wenonah 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 Wenonah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White62.2% · 181
- Black or African American12.7% · 37
- American Indian and Alaska Native9.3% · 27
- Two or more races8.2% · 24
- Hispanic or Latino3.8% · 11
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.8% · 11
Popularity
Wenonah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Wenonah from the 1900s through to the 2010s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 136 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1910s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Wenonah 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 Wenonah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Wenonahs live
Origin
Meaning and history of Wenonah
The name Wenonah has its origins in the Algonquian languages spoken by various Native American tribes. It is derived from the word "winuna," which means "daughter" or "first-born daughter." The earliest recorded use of this name dates back to the 17th century, when it was used by the Lenape tribe, also known as the Delaware Indians, who inhabited parts of present-day Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.
One of the earliest known references to the name Wenonah can be found in the writings of William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania. In his correspondence with the Lenape tribe, he mentioned a chief named Wenonah, suggesting that the name was in use among the tribe during that time period.
In the 19th century, the name gained popularity among non-Native American communities, particularly in the United States. This was likely due to the romanticization of Native American culture and the interest in using Native American names as a way to connect with the country's indigenous heritage.
One notable figure who bore the name Wenonah was Wenonah Stevens Abbott (1876-1959), an American educator and author. She was born in New Jersey and spent much of her career teaching in public schools in New York City. She also wrote several books on education and child development, including "The Waverly Arithmetic" and "The Court of Boyville."
Another prominent Wenonah was Wenonah Wilkie Sharpe (1879-1951), a Canadian artist and painter. She was born in Nova Scotia and is known for her landscape paintings, particularly those depicting scenes from the Canadian Maritimes. Her works are part of the collections of several art galleries in Canada.
In the world of literature, Wenonah was the name of a fictional character in the 1856 poem "The Song of Hiawatha" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Wenonah was portrayed as the mother of Hiawatha, the epic's central figure, and was described as a kind and gentle woman.
Wenonah Colby (1880-1972) was an American educator and author who played a significant role in the establishment of the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) in the United States. She served as the national president of the PTA from 1924 to 1926 and worked to promote the organization's goals of improving education and advocating for children's welfare.
Finally, Wenonah Hauter (born in 1952) is an American environmental activist and author. She is the executive director of Food & Water Watch, a non-profit organization focused on issues related to food safety, water resources, and environmental protection. Hauter has written several books on these topics, including "Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America."
People
Wenonah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Wenonah 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
Wenonah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Wenonah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 154 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Wenonah 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 2,225,678 US residents.
Is Wenonah a common name?
We classify Wenonah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 70.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 506 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Wenonah most popular?
The single biggest year for Wenonah was 1916, when 26 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Wenonah is about 59 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Wenonah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 291 people with the name Wenonah, or 0.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #30,113 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 Wenonah 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 Wenonah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Wenonah appears almost entirely female. Of the 285 people counted with this name, 100.0% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Wenonah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Wenonah is White at 62.2%. The next largest groups are Black (12.7%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (9.3%). 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 Wenonah most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Wenonah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 62.2% (181 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 Wenonah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Wenonah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Wenonah in the SSA data are female. 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 Wenonah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Wenonah 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 Wenonah 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 share the name Wenonah?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.