Wilburn
Masculine · “willow stream”
Wilburn is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 10,324 boys against 15 girls since 1880.
Wilburn is Wilbur with an -n, and the extra letter probably comes from an English place name — a burn is a stream in northern English and Scots, still an ordinary word there.
How old is the name Wilburn?
Wilburn was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Wilburn alive today was born around 1930, making them about 95 years old. About 2,600 people named Wilburn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Wilburn most popular?
Wilburn peaked in 1926, reaching #318 nationally. See the whole 1926 chart.
Where it comes from
From welig burna to Wilburn
The story of Wilburn
Wilburn was an English surname that became a given name in the American South in the nineteenth century, alongside Wilbur, Wilford and Wilmer, all built on the same front element. It appears steadily in the registers of the period and peaked around 1918, then declined through the second half of the century.
Meaningscholars disagree
willow stream
The likeliest reading joins the Old English welig, 'willow', to burna, 'stream' — a place name of a very common type. A second route treats it as an elaboration of Wilbur, from willa, 'will', and beraht, 'bright'. Both are plausible and the American record does not distinguish them.
How the name formed
- welig burna
- Wilburn
Related forms: Wilbur · Welburn
Pronouncing Wilburn
WIL-burn
Two syllables, stress on the first. Wilburn and Welburn are said identically.
Nicknames for Wilburn
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
- 1925280 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #318reached in 1926
- Change vs 2004
- −16.7%5 in 2022, from 6
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.
Wilburn in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Wilbur in English — related form
- Welburn in English — spelling variant
Wilburns among us
people named Wilburn 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
Wilburn 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
- The willow-stream reading is concrete and belongs to a large family of English place names.
- Will is available as a completely ordinary and current short form.
- It is unusual enough to be distinctive without being unfamiliar.
- The origin is genuinely split between a place name and an elaboration of Wilbur.
- Wilbur is much the commoner name and is often substituted.
- It is strongly period-coded to the early twentieth century.
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Wilburn
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Wilburns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,600 people named Wilburn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Wilburn in 2025?
- Wilburn is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Wilburn with classmates?
- Wilburn will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More W names
The most-given names starting with W, all years combined.
William#9 · Walter#251 · Willie#1315 · Wayne#652 · Wesley#52 · Wyatt#38 · Warren#240 · Wallace#960
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Wilburn? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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