Winfred
Masculine · “friend of peace”
Winfred is given to both — 10,104 boys and 351 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Winfred and Winifred are two different names that look like one. Winfred is Old English — friend and peace, joined the way Anglo-Saxon names always were — and it belonged to the Devon monk who converted much of Germany. Winifred is Welsh, from an entirely separate name, and the two have been confused for centuries.
How old is the name Winfred?
Winfred was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Winfred alive today was born around 1938, making them about 87 years old. About 3,700 people named Winfred are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Winfred most popular?
Winfred peaked in 1917, reaching #385 nationally. See the whole 1917 chart.
Where it comes from
From Winfrith to Winfred
The story of Winfred
Winfrith was born in Devon, became a monk, and went to the continent as a missionary, where he is said to have felled a great oak sacred to Thor in front of an audience waiting for the god to strike him down. He was given the name Boniface by the pope and is remembered under it, but the name he was born with was this one. It stayed in English use quietly and reached America early. It goes to girls as often as to boys in the American record, which is almost certainly the Welsh name's doing rather than the English one's.
Meaning
friend of peace
Old English wine means a friend and frith means peace or protection, and Winfrith joins them. Both elements are common in Anglo-Saxon names — wine ends Godwin and Edwin, frith stands in Frideswide and Geoffrey's second half. The derivation is not disputed. Winifred is a separate matter: it anglicizes the Welsh Gwenfrewi, whose elements are gwen, white or blessed, and something else argued over, and its resemblance to the English name is a coincidence that history has made permanent.
How the name formed
- Winfrith
- Winfred
Related forms: Gwenfrewi · Winfried
Pronouncing Winfred
WIN-frid
WIN-frid, two syllables, stress at the front, the second vowel short. Winifred has three, WIN-ih-fred, which is the audible difference between the two names — and the one most people miss.
Nicknames for Winfred
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
- 1924231 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #385reached in 1917
- Change vs 2018
- −44.4%5 in 2023, 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.
Winfred in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Gwenfrewi in Welsh — related form
- Winfried in German — same name
Winfreds among us
people named Winfred 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
Winfred 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 elements are plain Old English words, so the meaning is transparent once given.
- Win and Fred are both complete short forms and they go in different directions.
- The historical bearer is a genuinely significant figure with a memorable story.
- Winifred is far better known and this name will be heard and written as it constantly.
- The name is strongly associated with the oldest living generations and reads as belonging to them.
- It goes to girls nearly as often as to boys in the record, so it settles nothing on a form.
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Winfred
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Winfreds are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,700 people named Winfred are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Winfred in 2025?
- Winfred is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Winfred with classmates?
- Winfred 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 Winfred? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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