Winifred
Masculine · “Blessed reconciliation”
Winifred is given to girls far more often — 45,094 girls against 1,106 boys since 1880. See Winifred as a girl 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 first appears in US birth records in 1882 — 143 years ago. The typical Winifred alive today was born around 1929, making them about 96 years old. About 300 people named Winifred are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Winifred most popular?
Winifred peaked in 1903, reaching #910 nationally. See the whole 1903 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
- 1882
- Most boys named
- 191847 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #910reached in 1903
- Change vs 1973
- −33.3%6 in 1989, 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.
Winifred in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Gwenfrewi in Welsh — related form
Winifreds among us
people named Winifred 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
Winifred 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
- 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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Winifred
Masculine
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 300 people named Winifred are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Winifred in 2025?
- Winifred is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Winifred with classmates?
- Winifred 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 Winifred? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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