Wilbur
A name of Old English origin meaning "Wild boar ruler".
Name Census estimates that about 13,893 living Americans carry the first name Wilbur. It is a predominantly male name (99.5% of registrations). The average person named Wilbur today is around 69 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Wilbur births was 1918 (1,809 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Wilbur. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Wilbur with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Wilbur is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 290 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • The typical person named Wilbur is about 69 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Wilburs were born before 1967.
- • Compared to the 1920s, recent registration numbers for Wilbur have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
14K
~ 1 in 24,671 Americans
Peak year
1918
1,809 babies that year
Average age
69
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,986
Tracked since 1880
Census
Wilbur in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 13,532 people with the first name Wilbur, which placed it at #2,024 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
#2,024
National first-name rank
People counted
14K
13,532 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
4.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
70.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Wilbur
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Wilbur is White at 70.0%. The next largest groups are Black (19.4%) and Hispanic (4.7%). 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 Wilbur 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 Wilbur at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White70.0% · 9,479
- Black or African American19.4% · 2,628
- Hispanic or Latino4.7% · 632
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.1% · 289
- Two or more races2.1% · 284
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.6% · 220
Gender
Gender distribution for Wilbur
Out of the 57,170 babies given the name Wilbur since 1880, 99.5% 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.
Wilbur as a male name
- Ranked #2,986 in 2024
- 42 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1918 (1,800 births)
Wilbur as a female name
- Ranked #7,185 in 1959
- 5 female births in 1959
- Peak: 1919 (17 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Wilbur appears almost entirely male. Of the 13,535 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Wilbur: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Wilbur from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 15,834 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Wilbur 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 Wilbur during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Wilburs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 48 states and territories. Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois recorded the most babies named Wilbur, while Hawaii, Delaware, New Hampshire recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,027 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Wilbur
The name Wilbur has its origins in Old German and Anglo-Saxon roots. It is derived from the Germanic words "wil" meaning "will" or "desire", and "beorht" meaning "bright" or "radiant". The name can therefore be interpreted as meaning "brilliant will" or "radiant desire".
In its earliest forms, the name was spelled as "Wilburh" or "Wilburga" and was commonly used in England and parts of northern Europe during the Middle Ages. It was particularly popular among Anglo-Saxon nobility and religious figures.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name dates back to the 7th century AD, when a Wilburga was mentioned as the abbess of a convent in Dereham, Norfolk. Another notable early bearer of the name was Saint Wilburga, who lived in the 8th century and was venerated as the patron saint of unmarried women and those suffering from bodily illnesses.
As the name evolved, it took on various spellings such as "Wilbur", "Wilbor", and "Wilburt". In the 12th century, a Wilbur was recorded as a monk in the Benedictine monastery of Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk, England.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Wilbur. One of the earliest was Wilbur the Younger (c. 1090-1156), a Norman nobleman and landowner in England during the reign of King Stephen.
In the 19th century, Wilbur Wright (1867-1912) was an American aviator and inventor, best known for pioneering the first successful powered airplane flight with his brother Orville in 1903.
Another famous Wilbur was Wilbur Morris (1889-1966), an American actor and comedian who appeared in numerous films and television shows in the 1940s and 1950s.
In the literary world, Wilbur Addison Smith (1933-2021) was a renowned South African novelist and writer, known for his bestselling novels set in Africa, such as "When the Lion Feeds" and "The Seventh Scroll".
Wilbur Soot (born 1996) is a contemporary English YouTuber and internet personality, known for his gaming and comedy content on platforms like Twitch and YouTube.
People
Wilbur + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Wilbur 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
Wilbur: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Wilbur?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 13,893 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Wilbur 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 24,671 US residents.
Is Wilbur a common name?
We classify Wilbur as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 57,170 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Wilbur most popular?
The single biggest year for Wilbur was 1918, when 1,809 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Wilbur is about 69 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Wilbur in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 13,532 people with the name Wilbur, or 4.48 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,024 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 Wilbur 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 Wilbur?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Wilbur appears almost entirely male. Of the 13,535 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Wilbur?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Wilbur is White at 70.0%. The next largest groups are Black (19.4%) and Hispanic (4.7%). 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 Wilbur most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Wilbur in the 2020 Census, accounting for 70.0% (9,479 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 Wilbur in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Wilbur a male name?
Yes, 99.5% of people registered as Wilbur 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 Wilbur still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Wilbur 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 Wilbur 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 Americans are named Wilbur?
See how many people have the name Wilbur on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.