Wilder
Wilder was given to 743 boys in 2025, #431 among boys’ names; 8,835 Americans have been recorded with it since 1914 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 8,590 Americans named Wilder and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 5 years old and half are between 3 and 9.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Wilder by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Wilder?
#431 among boys’ names, 2025
Wilder rose from #965 in 2015 to #431 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.11 to 0.43 per 1,000.
978 babies in 2021, the peak
Wilder peaked in 2021, when 978 babies were given it (890 boys, #367 among boys’ names). The 786 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 80% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 743 | #431 | 0.43 |
| 2024 | 836 | #390 | 0.49 |
| 2023 | 755 | #422 | 0.44 |
| 2022 | 867 | #374 | 0.50 |
| 2021 | 890 | #367 | 0.51 |
| 2020 | 695 | #427 | 0.40 |
| 2019 | 601 | #485 | 0.33 |
| 2018 | 540 | #527 | 0.30 |
| 2017 | 477 | #573 | 0.26 |
| 2016 | 338 | #726 | 0.18 |
Every recorded year (69)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 215 | #965 | 0.11 |
| 2014 | 134 | #1,317 | 0.07 |
| 2013 | 127 | #1,344 | 0.07 |
| 2012 | 93 | #1,666 | 0.05 |
| 2011 | 62 | #2,142 | 0.03 |
| 2010 | 65 | #2,096 | 0.03 |
| 2009 | 38 | #3,102 | 0.02 |
| 2008 | 59 | #2,261 | 0.03 |
| 2007 | 56 | #2,336 | 0.03 |
| 2006 | 37 | #3,021 | 0.02 |
| 2005 | 33 | #3,166 | 0.02 |
| 2004 | 45 | #2,483 | 0.02 |
| 2003 | 26 | #3,519 | 0.01 |
| 2002 | 25 | #3,545 | 0.01 |
| 2001 | 28 | #3,220 | 0.01 |
| 2000 | 19 | #4,194 | 0.01 |
| 1999 | 24 | #3,367 | 0.01 |
| 1998 | 20 | #3,698 | 0.01 |
| 1997 | 13 | #4,942 | 0.01 |
| 1996 | 16 | #4,174 | 0.01 |
| 1995 | 13 | #4,778 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 11 | #5,430 | 0.01 |
| 1993 | 20 | #3,358 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 14 | #4,309 | 0.01 |
| 1991 | 10 | #5,495 | under 0.01 |
| 1990 | 14 | #4,156 | 0.01 |
| 1989 | 13 | #4,258 | 0.01 |
| 1987 | 7 | #6,066 | under 0.01 |
| 1985 | 8 | #5,126 | under 0.01 |
| 1984 | 6 | #6,287 | under 0.01 |
| 1983 | 6 | #6,207 | under 0.01 |
| 1982 | 6 | #6,366 | under 0.01 |
| 1980 | 5 | #7,269 | under 0.01 |
| 1972 | 5 | #5,731 | under 0.01 |
| 1969 | 6 | #4,397 | under 0.01 |
| 1952 | 5 | #4,246 | under 0.01 |
| 1951 | 6 | #3,700 | under 0.01 |
| 1950 | 5 | #4,180 | under 0.01 |
| 1946 | 8 | #2,912 | under 0.01 |
| 1942 | 7 | #3,205 | 0.01 |
| 1937 | 11 | #2,329 | 0.01 |
| 1936 | 9 | #2,623 | 0.01 |
| 1931 | 6 | #3,749 | 0.01 |
| 1929 | 5 | #4,523 | under 0.01 |
| 1928 | 8 | #3,350 | 0.01 |
| 1927 | 6 | #4,196 | 0.01 |
| 1926 | 6 | #4,178 | 0.01 |
| 1925 | 7 | #3,727 | 0.01 |
| 1924 | 7 | #3,857 | 0.01 |
| 1923 | 7 | #3,814 | 0.01 |
| 1922 | 8 | #3,519 | 0.01 |
| 1921 | 12 | #2,624 | 0.01 |
| 1920 | 6 | #4,269 | 0.01 |
| 1919 | 5 | #4,790 | 0.01 |
| 1918 | 10 | #2,871 | 0.01 |
| 1917 | 8 | #3,208 | 0.01 |
| 1916 | 6 | #3,879 | 0.01 |
| 1915 | 9 | #2,820 | 0.01 |
| 1914 | 9 | #2,451 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Wilder a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 8,835 Americans recorded as Wilder, 7% are girls and 93% boys. In 2025 it went to 43 girls and 743 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Wilder: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Wilder, and how old are they?
8,590 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 8,835 Americans ever recorded as Wilder. The median Wilder alive today is 5 years old; half are between 3 and 9.
The 2020 Census counted 4,715 people named Wilder (283 women and girls, 4,432 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 3,655 born in the U.S. The Census count is 29% 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.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 7 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 13 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 14 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 138 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 651 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 7,760 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
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 Wilder born?
The states with the most babies named Wilder are California, Texas and Tennessee, with 19% of its births recorded by state in 2025; Tennessee is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 56 | #590 | 0.7× |
| Texas | 41 | #788 | 0.5× |
| Tennessee | 40 | #227 | 1.8× |
| Florida | 40 | #465 | 0.7× |
| Georgia | 34 | #356 | 0.9× |
| Minnesota | 33 | #201 | 1.3× |
| North Carolina | 30 | #380 | 1.0× |
| Missouri | 25 | #345 | 1.2× |
| Michigan | 24 | #372 | 0.7× |
| Washington | 23 | #335 | 1.2× |
Where Wilder is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Wilder is most over-represented in Tennessee: since 1914 it was given 1.8 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ 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 Wilder 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 2 names spelled alike, given to 11,595 babies since 1880, Wilder is the most given (76% of them). In 2025 it was given to 786 of their 1,234 babies (64%), again the most given.
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 Wilder
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 Wilder and names like it
- Compare Wilder and WylderBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sWilder peaked in 2021.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Wilder since 1910.
- The top names of 2021The year the most babies were named Wilder.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Wilder alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with WMost given first.