Walid
Masculine · “Newborn”
Walīd means the newborn — literally the one just delivered — which makes it one of the very few names that describes the moment it is given. It has been in use across the Arab world since the seventh century, and an early caliph carried it at the empire's greatest extent.
How old is the name Walid?
Walid first appears in US birth records in 1969 — 56 years ago. The typical Walid alive today was born around 2004, making them about 21 years old. About 1,000 people named Walid are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Walid most popular?
Walid peaked in 1998, reaching #2651 nationally. Today it ranks #5208, 2,557 places below that high. See the whole 1998 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From walīd to Walid
The story of Walid
Al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik ruled the Umayyad caliphate from 705 to 715, the years in which its armies reached Spain in the west and the Indus in the east; the Great Mosque of Damascus was built under him. Khalid ibn al-Walid, a generation earlier, was the general who won at Yarmouk. Between the two, the name was fixed in Arab usage and has stayed ordinary ever since, across the Levant, the Gulf, North Africa and the Muslim communities of South Asia. American records show it steadily from the 1960s with Arab immigration, peaking in the late 1990s, and it is also used by African American Muslim families.
Meaning
Newborn, newly born son
From Arabic walada, to give birth, giving walīd, a newborn child. The same root produces walad, a boy or son, and wālid, a father or parent. The reading is settled and every source agrees.
How the name formed
- walīd
- Walid
Related forms: وليد · Velid · Oualid · ولید
Pronouncing Walid
wah-LEED
Two syllables, stress on the second, with a long ee. English speakers sometimes say WAH-lid, moving the stress forward and shortening the vowel.
Nicknames for Walid
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
- 1969
- Most boys named
- 201738 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2651reached in 1998
- Change vs 2024
- −14.3%18 in 2025, from 21
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.
Walid in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- وليد in Arabic — transliteration
- Velid in Turkish — spelling variant
- Oualid in French — transliteration
- ولید in Urdu — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Virginia.
Walids among us
people named Walid are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 94,893 born in 2025 was named Walid
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Ashford test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Walid's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ashford climbed just as high around 1914, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ashford's path sketches the road Walid is walking now.
Walid sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Walid beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Walid in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled and unusually literal — the newborn.
- It is recognized everywhere from Morocco to Pakistan.
- Five letters and two open syllables are easy for English speakers.
- The English short form Wally carries a comic register the Arabic name does not have.
- Waleed, Walid and Oualid are all in use and will be written for each other.
- The name is read as unambiguously Arab and Muslim.
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What they receive
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Walid
Masculine · #5208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Walids are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Walid are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Walid in 2025?
- Walid ranks #5208 among US boy names in 2025, with 18 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Walid?
- About 1 in every 94,893 US boys born in 2025 was named Walid — 18 in all.
- Will my child share the name Walid with classmates?
- Walid will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Walid
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rodger#5208 · Eusebio#5208 · Boy#5208 · Randal#5208 · Gable#5208 · Jessy#5208 · Kelby#5208 · Jens#5208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Walid? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Walid and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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