Winford
Masculine
Winford blurs into its neighbors in the record. Winfred is Old English for friend of peace; Wilford is a ford by the willows; Winford is either a third place name about a ford or a worn-down version of one of the other two. American registers of the period contain all three and did not distinguish them carefully.
How old is the name Winford?
Winford first appears in US birth records in 1889 — 136 years ago. The typical Winford alive today was born around 1937, making them about 88 years old. About 1,600 people named Winford are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Winford most popular?
Winford peaked in 1928, reaching #571 nationally. See the whole 1928 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Winford
The -ford ending is one of the most productive in English place naming because river crossings determined where settlements went, and American naming took a great many of them for sons in the nineteenth century — Milford, Sanford, Clifford, Winford, Wilford. Once a family of names sounds alike and belongs to one period, the members leak into one another: a Winfred is written Winford by a clerk, a Wilford becomes a Winford by a slip, and after a generation nobody can say which was meant.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established
Two readings compete. As a place name, Winford in Somerset is generally read as a white ford or a ford by a meadow, and the surname would follow. As a variant, it is Winfrid — Old English wine, a friend, plus frith, peace — with the last consonant reshaped toward the familiar -ford ending. Both are plausible and the American record contains the three names interchangeably enough that neither can be established for a family.
Pronouncing Winford
WIN-furd
WIN-furd, two syllables, stress at the front, the second vowel reduced. Winfred is WIN-frid, with the r in the second syllable rather than the first — the two are audibly different and constantly confused anyway.
Nicknames for Winford
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
- 1889
- Most boys named
- 1923110 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #571reached in 1928
- Change vs 1995
- −33.3%6 in 2009, from 9
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.
Winfords among us
people named Winford 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
Winford 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
- Both possible sources are documented English words with concrete meanings.
- Win and Ford are both usable short forms in different registers.
- Two syllables with a firm first stress, which carries a long surname easily.
- Winfred and Wilford are close enough to be substituted, and both are in the record beside it.
- The origin cannot be settled, so any meaning offered is a choice between two.
- The name is strongly associated with the oldest generations and has not returned.
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Winford
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Winfords are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,600 people named Winford are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Winford in 2025?
- Winford is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Winford with classmates?
- Winford 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 Winford? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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