Winifred
Feminine · “Blessed reconciliation”
Winifred is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 45,094 girls against 1,106 boys since 1880. See Winifred as a boy name
There is a well in north Wales that people have visited without a break for thirteen centuries, and it belongs to this name. Pilgrims kept coming through the Reformation, when the site was officially suppressed and the visits simply continued, which makes it the oldest continuously used place of pilgrimage in Britain.
How old is the name Winifred?
Winifred was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Winifred alive today was born around 1924, making them about 101 years old. About 11,000 people named Winifred are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Winifred most popular?
Winifred peaked in 1917, reaching #141 nationally. Today it ranks #922, 781 places below that high. See the whole 1917 chart.
Where it comes from
From Gwenfrewi to Winifred
The story of Winifred
The story attached to the well is a beheading and a restoration: a suitor refused, a girl killed at the church door, a spring rising where her head fell, and an uncle who put her back together. She is then supposed to have lived another fifteen years as abbess of a community, and the historical record does contain an abbess of about the right period. The medieval shrine had a well chapel built over it by a king's mother, and the pool is still there with the same stone crossing it. Whatever one makes of the story, the queue has not stopped since it was first told.
Meaningscholars disagree
Blessed reconciliation
The Welsh original joins an element meaning white, fair or blessed to one about peace or reconciliation. The English form was reshaped to look like the unrelated Anglo-Saxon names in Win-, which is why the two halves no longer resemble the Welsh ones. Neither reading is beyond argument.
How the name formed
- Gwenfrewi
- Wenefreda
- Winifred
Related forms: Gwenfrewi
Pronouncing Winifred
WIN-ih-fred
Three syllables with the stress at the front. The Welsh original is said quite differently, with the weight on the middle syllable and a first sound English does not use.
Nicknames for Winifred
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 girls named
- 19181,593 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #141reached in 1917
- Change vs 2022
- +24.0%284 in 2025, from 229
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.
Winifred in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Gwenfrewi in Welsh — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Illinois.
Winifreds among us
people named Winifred are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 5,659 born in 2025 was named Winifred
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Winifred
- #922
- Winifred on the 2025 chart
- #628
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Winifred went to 284 girls in 2025, but Winnifred is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 354, which makes it the 628th most-given girls’ name of the year — 294 places above the chart.
- Winifred284
- Winnifred70
About 1 girl in 4,540 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 5,659 for Winifred itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Elva test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Winifred's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Elva climbed just as high around 1901, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Elva's path sketches the road Winifred is walking now.
Winifred is on its second act. Revived names age gently: the generation that wore them first is far enough away that the name feels classic rather than dated.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Winifred is headed
Winifred should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Winifred beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Winifred in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Winnie is an established short form that has come back into fashion on its own.
- The name has a documented Welsh and English history running back thirteen centuries.
- Three short forms in three quite different registers.
- The record carries it for boys in small numbers, so it is not quite an absolute signal.
- It shares almost no letters with the Welsh name it descends from, which surprises Welsh speakers.
- Winifred and Winfred look alike and are unrelated names.
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What they receive
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Winifred
Feminine · #922 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Winifreds are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 11,000 people named Winifred are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Winifred?
- Winifred is the most-used spelling in US records — 284 of the 354 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Winnifred.
- How popular is the name Winifred in 2025?
- Winifred ranks #922 among US girl names in 2025, with 284 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Winifred?
- About 1 in every 5,659 US girls born in 2025 was named Winifred — 284 in all.
- Will my child share the name Winifred with classmates?
- Winifred will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Winifred
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Emmeline#922 · Cheyenne#920 · Giana#920 · Clare#924 · Maddie#925 · Elisabeth#925 · Ivey#925 · Elyse#918
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Winifred? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Winifred and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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