Wendall
Masculine · “Germanic Wendel”
Wendall is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 2,433 boys against 6 girls since 1880.
The Wends were a Slavic people, and Wend is what the Germans called them rather than what they called themselves. A surprising number of European names are ethnonyms of this kind: Frank, Norman, Scott, Wallace and Welsh all began as one group's word for another.
How old is the name Wendall?
Wendall first appears in US birth records in 1904 — 121 years ago. The typical Wendall alive today was born around 1957, making them about 68 years old. About 1,500 people named Wendall are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Wendall most popular?
Wendall peaked in 1958, reaching #1026 nationally. Today it ranks #8910, 7,884 places below that high. See the whole 1958 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Wendel to Wendall
The story of Wendall
Names built on other people's names for foreigners are commoner than they look. Walh was the Germanic word for a Celtic or Roman speaker, and it produced Welsh, Wallace, Walsh, Waugh and the place names Wales, Cornwall and Wallonia; the same root gives the Polish word for an Italian and the -wal in walnut, the foreign nut. Frank was a tribal name that became francus, free, and gave frank, franchise and France. Norman is north man. Scott is a Latin term for an Irish raider. Wendel is German for a Slav of the Elbe. In every case the label was applied from outside, and in every case it hardened into a family name and then into a given one, long after anyone remembered which side of the boundary it was spoken from.
Meaning
Germanic Wendel, a Wend or Vandal
Wendall is a respelling of Wendell, a German surname from the medieval given name Wendel, referring to a Wend or Vandal, the Germanic term for the Slavic peoples of the Elbe. It reached America through German settlement in Pennsylvania and became a first name through the Holmes family. The -all ending is an American respelling of -ell with no effect on the sound. The peak is 1958.
How the name formed
- Wendel
- Wendell
- Wendall
Related forms: Wendel · Wendell
Pronouncing Wendall
WEN-dul
Two syllables, stress on the first. Wendall and Wendell are homophones; the second syllable is unstressed and its vowel is a schwa, which is why either spelling works.
Nicknames for Wendall
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
- 1904
- Most boys named
- 196149 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1026reached in 1958
- Change vs 2023
- +14.3%8 in 2025, from 7
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.
Wendall in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Wendel in German — related form
- Wendell in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Pennsylvania.
Wendalls among us
people named Wendall are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 213,510 born in 2025 was named Wendall
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 Erskine test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Wendall's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Erskine climbed just as high around 1921, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Erskine's path sketches the road Wendall is walking now.
Wendall 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
Wendall beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Wendall in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Del is available as a short form and is a name on its own.
- The surname has a documented German and American history.
- Two syllables with a firm first-syllable stress.
- Wendell is much the commoner spelling.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes dominates recognition of the name.
- The 1958 peak places it in the mid-century.
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What they receive
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Wendall
Masculine · #8910 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Wendalls are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,500 people named Wendall are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Wendall in 2025?
- Wendall ranks #8910 among US boy names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Wendall?
- About 1 in every 213,510 US boys born in 2025 was named Wendall — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Wendall with classmates?
- Wendall will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Wendall
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Davie#8910 · Ned#8910 · Darious#8910 · Alois#8910 · Len#8910 · Barton#8910 · Desmon#8910 · Winfield#8910
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Wendall? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Wendall and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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