Wenda
Wenda was last recorded in 1982, when 5 babies were given it; 1,001 Americans have been recorded with it between 1935 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 Wenda by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Wenda mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Wenda is “a female given name, variant of Wendy.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Wenda?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #12,280, in 1982; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
43 babies in 1956, the peak
Wenda peaked in 1956, when 43 girls were given it, #1,635 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1982 | 5 | #12,280 | 3.0 |
| 1981 | 5 | #12,152 | 3.0 |
| 1980 | 6 | #10,365 | 3.6 |
| 1979 | 5 | #11,929 | 3.1 |
| 1978 | 7 | #8,541 | 4.6 |
| 1976 | 5 | #10,875 | 3.4 |
| 1975 | 12 | #5,152 | 8.2 |
| 1974 | 12 | #5,004 | 8.2 |
| 1973 | 11 | #5,183 | 7.5 |
| 1972 | 12 | #4,788 | 7.9 |
Every recorded year (47)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1971 | 13 | #4,530 | 7.8 |
| 1970 | 23 | #3,028 | 13.2 |
| 1969 | 21 | #3,008 | 12.4 |
| 1968 | 25 | #2,537 | 15.2 |
| 1967 | 19 | #2,959 | 11.5 |
| 1966 | 33 | #2,056 | 19.5 |
| 1965 | 28 | #2,291 | 15.9 |
| 1964 | 40 | #1,889 | 21.1 |
| 1963 | 34 | #2,059 | 17.6 |
| 1962 | 35 | #1,986 | 17.8 |
| 1961 | 39 | #1,869 | 19.3 |
| 1960 | 36 | #1,923 | 17.8 |
| 1959 | 32 | #2,017 | 15.8 |
| 1958 | 27 | #2,207 | 13.4 |
| 1957 | 42 | #1,679 | 20.5 |
| 1956 | 43 | #1,635 | 21.4 |
| 1955 | 32 | #1,905 | 16.4 |
| 1954 | 38 | #1,674 | 19.6 |
| 1953 | 28 | #1,968 | 14.9 |
| 1952 | 33 | #1,743 | 17.8 |
| 1951 | 34 | #1,662 | 18.9 |
| 1950 | 34 | #1,624 | 19.8 |
| 1949 | 35 | #1,600 | 20.5 |
| 1948 | 31 | #1,705 | 18.3 |
| 1947 | 26 | #1,943 | 14.7 |
| 1946 | 15 | #2,593 | 9.5 |
| 1945 | 10 | #3,125 | 7.7 |
| 1944 | 8 | #3,676 | 6.0 |
| 1943 | 9 | #3,482 | 6.5 |
| 1942 | 15 | #2,412 | 11.1 |
| 1941 | 22 | #1,749 | 18.2 |
| 1940 | 12 | #2,568 | 10.5 |
| 1939 | 12 | #2,580 | 10.9 |
| 1938 | 15 | #2,221 | 13.6 |
| 1937 | 9 | #3,138 | 8.5 |
| 1936 | 6 | #4,164 | 5.8 |
| 1935 | 7 | #3,732 | 6.7 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Wenda a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Wenda has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 47 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Wenda: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Wenda, and how old are they?
An estimated 771 Americans named Wenda and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (77% of everyone recorded); the median is 67 years old and half are between 60 and 74. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 1,053 people named Wenda (955 women and girls, 98 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 841 born in the U.S. The Census count is 25% 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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 6 names spelled alike, given to 283,166 babies since 1880, Wenda is the fifth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 none of their 165 babies recorded by SSA was a Wenda (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
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 Wenda
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 Wenda and names like it
- Compare Wenda and WendyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1950sWenda peaked in 1956.
- Pennsylvania’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Wenda since 1910.
- The top names of 1956The year the most babies were named Wenda.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Wenda alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with WMost given first.