Wyman
Of English origin meaning "man from the meadow" or "woodsman".
Name Census estimates that about 1,583 living Americans carry the first name Wyman. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Wyman today is around 58 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Wyman births was 1922 (63 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Wyman. 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
1.6K
~ 1 in 216,522 Americans
Peak year
1922
63 babies that year
Average age
58
years old
2024 SSA rank
#10,827
Tracked since 1898
Census
Wyman in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,462 people with the first name Wyman, which placed it at #9,489 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
#9,489
National first-name rank
People counted
1.5K
1,462 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
63.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Wyman
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Wyman is White at 63.3%. The next largest groups are Black (21.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (9.0%). 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 Wyman 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 Wyman at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White63.3% · 925
- Black or African American21.8% · 318
- Asian and Pacific Islander9.0% · 131
- Two or more races3.0% · 44
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.9% · 28
- Hispanic or Latino1.1% · 16
Popularity
Wyman: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Wyman from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 479 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
Wyman 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 Wyman during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Wymans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 13 states and territories. Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama recorded the most babies named Wyman, while Ohio, New York, Missouri recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 47 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Wyman
The name Wyman is an English given name that originated as a surname derived from the Old English word "wic" meaning a dwelling or village. It was first recorded as a surname in the 13th century.
The earliest recorded use of the name Wyman as a given name dates back to the 16th century. It is believed to have been initially used as a given name by families who had the surname Wyman.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the given name Wyman was Wyman Everard, an English soldier who served in the English Civil War in the 17th century. He was born in 1622 and died in 1683.
Another notable individual with the name Wyman was Wyman Richardson, an American soldier and politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts in the late 18th century. He was born in 1744 and died in 1823.
In the 19th century, Wyman Buckingham Shedd was an American educator and author who served as the president of Emory College (now Emory University) in Georgia from 1838 to 1859. He was born in 1793 and died in 1873.
Wyman Abbott Parker, born in 1835 and died in 1910, was an American lawyer and politician who served as the Lieutenant Governor of New York from 1887 to 1891.
Another notable individual with the name Wyman was Wyman Otis Hildreth, an American lawyer and politician who served as the 55th Governor of Maine from 1945 to 1949. He was born in 1891 and died in 1972.
While the name Wyman has its origins in Old English and was initially used as a surname, it has been adopted as a given name over the centuries, with several notable individuals bearing this name throughout history.
People
Wyman + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Wyman 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
Wyman: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Wyman?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,583 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Wyman 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 216,522 US residents.
Is Wyman a common name?
We classify Wyman as "Rare". It ranks above 92.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,066 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Wyman most popular?
The single biggest year for Wyman was 1922, when 63 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Wyman is about 58 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Wyman in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,462 people with the name Wyman, or 0.48 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,489 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 Wyman 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 Wyman?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Wyman leans strongly male. 1,446 people counted with this name were male (98.7%), compared with 19 female bearers (1.3%). 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 Wyman?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Wyman is White at 63.3%. The next largest groups are Black (21.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (9.0%). 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 Wyman most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Wyman in the 2020 Census, accounting for 63.3% (925 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 Wyman in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Wyman a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Wyman 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 Wyman still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Wyman 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 Wyman 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 Wyman?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.