Stonewall
Masculine · “a wall built of stone”
Stonewall is a nickname that became a given name, and the record shows it arriving in the years immediately after the Civil War. The nickname itself came from a single sentence shouted during a battle, and the man who shouted it did not survive the day.
How old is the name Stonewall?
Stonewall was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Stonewall alive today was born around 1926, making them about 99 years old. About 200 people named Stonewall are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Stonewall most popular?
Stonewall peaked in 1880, reaching #640 nationally. See the whole 1880 chart.
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Stonewall
At the first large battle of the Civil War, with a Confederate line collapsing, a brigadier named Bernard Bee is reported to have pointed at a Virginia brigade holding position and said there stood Jackson like a stone wall. Bee was shot within the hour and died the next day, so he never explained himself, and officers who were near him disagreed afterwards about what he meant: some said it was admiration, others that it was exasperation at a commander standing still while Bee's own men were being cut to pieces. Nobody can settle it. The phrase was in the newspapers within days, it attached itself permanently, and a great many Southern families gave it to sons over the following decades. The record of those births is one of the clearest things the data holds about how the war was remembered in the generation after it.
Meaning
a wall built of stone
The two ordinary English words, used as a nickname for a Confederate general and then given as a first name by families in the South. The word's other modern association, with the New York uprising of nineteen sixty-nine, is much later than the name's appearance in the record and is unconnected to it.
Pronouncing Stonewall
STOHN-wawl
Two syllables with the stress at the front, exactly as the compound noun. Nothing about it needs explaining to an English speaker.
Nicknames for Stonewall
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 191823 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #640reached in 1880
- Change vs 2017
- 0.0%5 in 2019, 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.
Stonewalls among us
people named Stonewall 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
Stonewall 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
- Every reader can say it and spell it on first hearing.
- It is two ordinary words, so there is no pronunciation to teach.
- It is genuinely rare and unmistakable.
- The Confederate association is the reason the name exists in the record and it does not go away.
- The word now also names a landmark event in gay rights history, which is a separate and much later use.
- It is a compound noun rather than a name, and it reads as one.
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What they receive
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Stonewall
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Stonewalls 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 Stonewall are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Stonewall in 2025?
- Stonewall is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Stonewall with classmates?
- Stonewall will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More S names
The most-given names starting with S, all years combined.
Steven#271 · Stephen#383 · Samuel#18 · Scott#534 · Sean#489 · Shawn#681 · Stanley#863 · Steve#1609
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Stonewall? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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