Winthrop
Masculine · “Friend's outlying farm”
The most quoted phrase ever produced by a Winthrop is usually quoted backwards. A city upon a hill, in the sermon it comes from, is a warning: the eyes of all people are upon us, so that if we deal falsely we shall be made a byword through the world. It is a description of exposure, not of glory.
How old is the name Winthrop?
Winthrop first appears in US birth records in 1883 — 142 years ago. The typical Winthrop alive today was born around 1939, making them about 86 years old. About 400 people named Winthrop are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Winthrop most popular?
Winthrop peaked in 1906, reaching #852 nationally. See the whole 1906 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Winethorp to Winthrop
The story of Winthrop
The word thorp is one of the most useful markers on the English map. It is Old Norse, it means a secondary settlement, a satellite of a bigger village rather than a place in its own right, and it appears in hundreds of names across the north and east of England and almost nowhere in the south-west, which traces the boundary of Danish settlement more or less exactly. Scunthorpe, Cleethorpes, Mablethorpe, Bishopthorpe: all of them were once somebody's outlying farm. The same word gave the surname, and the surname went to Massachusetts in the sixteen-thirties and became one of the founding families of a colony, which is a long way for a word meaning a shed on the edge of a village.
Meaning
Friend's outlying farm
An English place name joining a personal name, probably Wine, to thorp, an outlying farm or hamlet dependent on a larger settlement. The word thorp is Norse in origin and is on the map across the whole area of Danish settlement in England. The surname identifies a family from one of the several places called this.
How the name formed
- Winethorp
- Winthrop
Pronouncing Winthrop
WIN-thrup
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The second is reduced to nothing, which is why the thorp element is almost invisible in speech and why so many place names containing it are misspelled.
Nicknames for Winthrop
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
- 1883
- Most boys named
- 191629 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #852reached in 1906
- Change vs 2016
- +20.0%6 in 2023, from 5
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.
Winthrops among us
people named Winthrop 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
Winthrop 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
- It has a documented English and American history running back four hundred years.
- Win is a short, positive, entirely current everyday form.
- The meaning is concrete and can be given to a child in a few words.
- It reads as a surname and as distinctly patrician in American ears.
- Three syllables in writing and two in speech makes the spelling awkward from dictation.
- It is strongly dated to the nineteenth century as a given name.
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What they receive
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Winthrop
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Winthrops are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Winthrop are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Winthrop in 2025?
- Winthrop is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Winthrop with classmates?
- Winthrop 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 Winthrop? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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