Mildred
Masculine · “gentle strength”
Mildred is given to girls far more often — 451,415 girls against 1,583 boys since 1880. See Mildred as a girl name
Mildred is one word made of two that pull against each other: the Old English for gentle and the Old English for strength or power. Germanic names were assembled from a family's stock of elements rather than composed as statements, but this pairing turns up often enough, and reads as deliberate often enough, that it is worth taking seriously as a combination rather than an accident.
How old is the name Mildred?
Mildred first appears in US birth records in 1889 — 136 years ago. The typical Mildred alive today was born around 1925, making them about 100 years old. About 200 people named Mildred are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Mildred most popular?
Mildred peaked in 1903, reaching #451 nationally. See the whole 1903 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Two Old English elements, gentle and strength to Mildred
The story of Mildred
The saint who carried it was an abbess in Kent, from a family that produced several of them, at a period when a royal woman entering religion was a political act as much as a spiritual one: an abbess controlled land, revenue and a household, and answered to very few people. Her relics were moved, disputed, claimed by two different houses and fought over for centuries afterwards, which is a reliable sign that they were considered valuable. The name survived the conquest, which almost no Anglo-Saxon woman's name did, and was still being given quietly through the medieval period before a large Victorian revival put it back into general use. Its second element is the same one that stands inside a handful of other Old English women's names, most of which are now gone entirely.
Meaning
gentle strength
Two Old English elements, one meaning mild or gentle and one meaning strength, power or might. Both are securely identified and the reading is not disputed. The second element is one of the most productive in Anglo-Saxon women's names and appears in a long list of them, most of which did not survive the Norman conquest. This one did, which is the unusual part.
How the name formed
- Two Old English elements, gentle and strength
- An abbess in Kent whose relics were fought over
- Surviving the conquest when most such names did not
- A large Victorian and Edwardian revival
Related forms: Mildrid · Mildred
Pronouncing Mildred
MIL-drid
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the second reduced almost to nothing. The spelling with an e in the second syllable records a vowel that was fully pronounced a thousand years ago and has not been for a very long time.
Nicknames for Mildred
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1889
- Most boys named
- 192852 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #451reached in 1903
- Change vs 1969
- +40.0%7 in 1970, from 5
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Mildred in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Mildrid in German — related form
- Mildred in Spanish — same name
Mildreds among us
people named Mildred are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Mildred sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is genuinely Anglo-Saxon, which very few names in ordinary use can claim.
- Millie is waiting inside it and is thoroughly fashionable again.
- The meaning is short, memorable and pleasantly contradictory.
- It is strongly associated with one American generation and reads as elderly to most people under fifty.
- The sound is heavier than the current fashion for women's names allows for.
- The spelling is on the register for boys as well, in very small numbers.
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Mildred
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Mildreds are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 200 people named Mildred are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Mildred in 2025?
- Mildred is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Mildred with classmates?
- Mildred will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More M names
The most-given names starting with M, all years combined.
Michael#21 · Matthew#32 · Mark#244 · Mason#39 · Martin#335 · Marvin#699 · Melvin#958 · Marcus#258
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Mildred? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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