Walker
Feminine · “fuller of cloth”
Walker is given to boys far more often — 47,914 boys against 1,037 girls since 1880. See Walker as a boy name
Walker is a fuller of cloth — the man who trod woolen fabric in water to thicken it, which is what walking meant in the trade.
How old is the name Walker?
Walker first appears in US birth records in 1914 — 111 years ago. The typical Walker is a kid of about 4 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,000 people named Walker are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Walker most popular?
Walker peaked in 2022, reaching #1422 nationally. Today it ranks #1942, 520 places below that high. See the whole 2022 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From wealcan to Walker
The story of Walker
Fulling was among the noisiest and least pleasant of medieval trades and gave three surnames according to region — Walker in the north and west, Fuller in the south-east, Tucker in the south-west. Walker entered American given-name use for boys and, from the 2010s, for girls. Feminine Walker is in current use.
Meaning
fuller of cloth
From the Old English wealcere, 'a fuller', from wealcan, 'to roll' or 'to tread'. Fulling meant trampling woven wool in water and fuller's earth to mat the fibers. Walker, Fuller and Tucker are the same trade named in three English dialects. The reading is documented.
How the name formed
- wealcan
- wealcere
- Walker
Related forms: Fuller · Tucker · Walker
Pronouncing Walker
WAW-kur
Two syllables, stress on the first. Said identically in every English accent.
Nicknames for Walker
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
- 1914
- Most girls named
- 2022158 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1422reached in 2022
- Change vs 2024
- −13.9%99 in 2025, from 115
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.
Walker in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Fuller in English — related form
- Tucker in English — related form
- Walker in German — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, North Carolina.
Walkers among us
people named Walker are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 16,235 born in 2025 was named Walker
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 Joannie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Walker's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Joannie climbed just as high around 1954, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Joannie's path sketches the road Walker is walking now.
Walker is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Walker is headed
Walker looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 45% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Walker beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Walker in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- That one trade gave three surnames by region is a first-rate piece of English history.
- Two clean syllables with no pronunciation risk.
- The meaning is concrete and records a real medieval craft.
- It reads as masculine and as a surname to most English speakers.
- It is an ordinary English noun.
- It is very new as a feminine given name.
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What they receive
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Walker
Feminine · #1942 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Walkers 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 Walker are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Walker in 2025?
- Walker ranks #1942 among US girl names in 2025, with 99 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Walker?
- About 1 in every 16,235 US girls born in 2025 was named Walker — 99 in all.
- Will my child share the name Walker with classmates?
- Walker will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Walker
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Iyanna#1942 · Nahomi#1942 · Aziyah#1942 · Avia#1942 · Nazly#1942 · Kamiya#1942 · Priya#1942 · Kyndall#1942
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Walker? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Walker and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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