Wallace
Masculine · “a Welshman”
Wallace is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 83,263 boys against 588 girls since 1880. See Wallace as a girl name
Wallace means foreigner, and the foreigners in question were the Britons. Germanic speakers used a word for the Celtic and Roman peoples they found already in place, and it survives all over the map — in Wales, in Cornwall, in Walloon, in Wallachia. It survives on the table too: a walnut is the foreign nut, as opposed to the hazel, which grew at home.
How old is the name Wallace?
Wallace was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Wallace alive today was born around 1936, making them about 89 years old. About 29,000 people named Wallace are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Wallace most popular?
Wallace peaked in 1923, reaching #69 nationally. Today it ranks #960, 891 places below that high. See the whole 1923 chart.
Where it comes from
From walhaz to Wallace
The story of Wallace
William Wallace led the Scottish resistance to Edward the First, won at Stirling Bridge, lost at Falkirk, and was executed in London in 1305 in a manner designed to be memorable; the name has carried him ever since. It became a first name in Scotland and then across the English-speaking world, and American records show it at its height in the early 1920s. It has never entirely gone away, which is unusual for a name so firmly attached to one figure.
Meaning
a Welshman; a foreigner
From the Anglo-Norman waleis, from a Germanic word meaning a foreigner or, specifically, a speaker of Celtic or Latin. In Scotland the surname was given to families from the Welsh-speaking kingdom of Strathclyde, so a Scottish Wallace was a Briton among Gaels. The same root gives Wales, Cornwall, Walloon and walnut.
How the name formed
- walhaz
- waleis
- Wallace
Related forms: Gallois · Wallis
Pronouncing Wallace
WAH-lus
Two syllables, stress on the first, the second reduced. Nothing about the spelling causes difficulty in any English-speaking country.
Nicknames for Wallace
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
- 19242,283 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #69reached in 1923
- Change vs 2022
- +3.0%241 in 2025, from 234
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.
Wallace in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Gallois in French — related form
- Wallis in Scots — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Washington.
Wallaces among us
people named Wallace are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 7,087 born in 2025 was named Wallace
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 Jessie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Wallace's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jessie climbed just as high around 1900, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jessie's path sketches the road Wallace is walking now.
Wallace 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
Where Wallace is headed
Wallace should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Wallace beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Wallace in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The etymology is genuinely interesting and connects the name to half a dozen words on the map and in the kitchen.
- It has a documented national hero behind it with a well-recorded life.
- Wally and Ace are both available and could hardly be more different.
- It is spelled the way it sounds and survives a phone call intact.
- Wally carries a British slang meaning that a traveling adult will discover.
- It belongs strongly to an early twentieth-century generation, though such names are returning.
- Nearly every child given this spelling is a boy; the record's girls are very few.
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Wallace
Masculine · #960 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Wallaces are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 29,000 people named Wallace are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Wallace in 2025?
- Wallace ranks #960 among US boy names in 2025, with 241 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Wallace?
- About 1 in every 7,087 US boys born in 2025 was named Wallace — 241 in all.
- Will my child share the name Wallace with classmates?
- Wallace will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Wallace
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Shimon#960 · Darwin#960 · Montgomery#960 · Aldo#960 · Damari#958 · Melvin#958 · Arian#965 · Felipe#955
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Wallace? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Wallace and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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