Valda
Valda was last recorded in 1982, when 6 babies were given it; 1,866 Americans have been recorded with it between 1897 and 1982 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Valda by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Valda?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #10,465, in 1982; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
62 babies in 1957, the peak
Valda peaked in 1957, when 62 girls were given it, #1,356 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1982 | 6 | #10,465 | 3.5 |
| 1979 | 8 | #8,031 | 5.0 |
| 1976 | 6 | #9,233 | 4.1 |
| 1975 | 7 | #7,949 | 4.8 |
| 1974 | 5 | #10,189 | 3.4 |
| 1972 | 8 | #6,534 | 5.3 |
| 1970 | 7 | #7,043 | 4.0 |
| 1969 | 14 | #3,949 | 8.3 |
| 1968 | 15 | #3,604 | 9.1 |
| 1967 | 16 | #3,326 | 9.7 |
Every recorded year (76)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1966 | 21 | #2,745 | 12.4 |
| 1965 | 24 | #2,535 | 13.6 |
| 1964 | 16 | #3,373 | 8.4 |
| 1963 | 28 | #2,300 | 14.5 |
| 1962 | 24 | #2,534 | 12.2 |
| 1961 | 36 | #1,951 | 17.8 |
| 1960 | 30 | #2,148 | 14.8 |
| 1959 | 41 | #1,739 | 20.3 |
| 1958 | 52 | #1,496 | 25.8 |
| 1957 | 62 | #1,356 | 30.3 |
| 1956 | 34 | #1,867 | 16.9 |
| 1955 | 38 | #1,689 | 19.4 |
| 1954 | 38 | #1,672 | 19.6 |
| 1953 | 45 | #1,470 | 23.9 |
| 1952 | 36 | #1,637 | 19.4 |
| 1951 | 32 | #1,734 | 17.8 |
| 1950 | 24 | #1,999 | 14.0 |
| 1949 | 34 | #1,624 | 19.9 |
| 1948 | 30 | #1,734 | 17.7 |
| 1947 | 24 | #2,041 | 13.5 |
| 1946 | 27 | #1,767 | 17.2 |
| 1945 | 12 | #2,734 | 9.2 |
| 1944 | 10 | #3,121 | 7.5 |
| 1943 | 18 | #2,145 | 12.9 |
| 1942 | 23 | #1,799 | 17.0 |
| 1941 | 16 | #2,185 | 13.2 |
| 1940 | 28 | #1,472 | 24.5 |
| 1939 | 19 | #1,874 | 17.3 |
| 1938 | 16 | #2,106 | 14.5 |
| 1937 | 25 | #1,533 | 23.5 |
| 1936 | 22 | #1,636 | 21.1 |
| 1935 | 27 | #1,445 | 25.7 |
| 1934 | 31 | #1,314 | 29.7 |
| 1933 | 31 | #1,307 | 30.8 |
| 1932 | 29 | #1,420 | 27.2 |
| 1931 | 33 | #1,283 | 31.0 |
| 1930 | 41 | #1,177 | 36.4 |
| 1929 | 41 | #1,171 | 36.7 |
| 1928 | 31 | #1,421 | 26.9 |
| 1927 | 43 | #1,193 | 36.1 |
| 1926 | 31 | #1,480 | 26.2 |
| 1925 | 45 | #1,158 | 37.0 |
| 1924 | 34 | #1,437 | 27.2 |
| 1923 | 43 | #1,194 | 35.6 |
| 1922 | 29 | #1,572 | 24.1 |
| 1921 | 30 | #1,538 | 24.3 |
| 1920 | 38 | #1,253 | 31.7 |
| 1919 | 39 | #1,213 | 34.5 |
| 1918 | 31 | #1,409 | 26.8 |
| 1917 | 30 | #1,372 | 27.7 |
| 1916 | 42 | #1,098 | 40.2 |
| 1915 | 28 | #1,365 | 28.5 |
| 1914 | 26 | #1,223 | 34.1 |
| 1913 | 16 | #1,523 | 25.6 |
| 1912 | 16 | #1,415 | 28.7 |
| 1911 | 16 | #1,165 | 38.2 |
| 1910 | 17 | #1,105 | 42.9 |
| 1909 | 9 | #1,595 | 25.9 |
| 1908 | 13 | #1,195 | 38.9 |
| 1907 | 6 | #2,039 | 18.8 |
| 1906 | 7 | #1,707 | 23.7 |
| 1905 | 9 | #1,408 | 30.9 |
| 1903 | 9 | #1,304 | 34.4 |
| 1901 | 8 | #1,327 | 33.4 |
| 1899 | 5 | #1,822 | 21.5 |
| 1897 | 5 | #1,777 | 21.3 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Valda a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Valda has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 76 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Valda: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Valda, and how old are they?
An estimated 746 Americans named Valda and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (40% of everyone recorded); the median is 70 years old and half are between 65 and 77. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 1,289 people named Valda (1,278 women and girls, 11 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 899 born in the U.S. The Census count is 43% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Valda born?
The states with the most babies named Valda are Texas, California and Nebraska, with 75% of its births recorded by state since 1910; Nebraska is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 105 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| California | 12 | not ranked | 0.1× |
| Nebraska | 11 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Michigan | 10 | not ranked | 0.1× |
| Ohio | 10 | not ranked | 0.1× |
| Oklahoma | 8 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Illinois | 5 | not ranked | 0.1× |
| Pennsylvania | 5 | not ranked | 0.0× |
| Wisconsin | 5 | not ranked | 0.1× |
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Valda with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 4 names spelled alike, given to 2,433 babies since 1880, Valda is the most given (77% of them).
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Valda
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Valda and names like it
- Compare Valda and ValedaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1950sValda peaked in 1957.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Valda since 1910.
- The top names of 1957The year the most babies were named Valda.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Valda alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with VMost given first.