Wylder
Masculine · Middle English roots · “from the English word "wild”
Wylder is given to both — 2,513 boys and 247 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Wylder is the English surname Wilder wearing a y — the same letter swap that gave English Wyatt, Wynn and Wyndham their look. The word underneath it is one of the oldest in the language: wild, meaning untamed or uncultivated ground. In the mouth it splits cleanly into two beats, WILE-der, and lands with the -er ending shared by so many surnames turned first names.
How old is the name Wylder?
Wylder first appears in US birth records in 2005 — 20 years ago. The typical Wylder is a kid of about 3 — this name's wave is very recent. About 2,500 people named Wylder are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Wylder most popular?
Wylder peaked in 2025, reaching #669 nationally. Today it ranks #669, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From wilde (Middle English) to Wylder
The story of Wylder
Wilder began as an English surname built on the Middle English word wilde, itself from Old English, and it also exists as a German family name from the cognate wild. Like Sawyer, Parker and Cooper before it, it crossed from surname to first name in the United States, where family names have long been handed forward as given names. The Wylder spelling is the newest layer: a modern American respelling that keeps the sound intact and borrows the y that English already accepts in Wyatt and Wynn. Its whole run as a given name is recent, so nearly everyone who carries it is a child.
Meaning
from the English word "wild" — untamed, uncultivated
The surname reached families two ways from the same word: as a byname for someone thought unruly, and as a name for a person living on wild or uncultivated land. Either road leads back to Middle English wilde.
How the name formed
- wildeMiddle English
- WilderEnglish surname
- Wildergiven name
- Wylder
Related forms: Wilder · Wilde · Wilder
Pronouncing Wylder
WILE-der
Two syllables, stress on the first, exactly like the word wilder. The y does no extra work — it sounds the same as the i in Wilder.
Nicknames for Wylder
High
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
- 2005
- Most boys named
- 2025407 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #669reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +1.0%407 in 2025, from 403
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.
Wylder in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Wilder in English — spelling variant
- Wilde in English — related form
- Wilder in German — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, North Carolina.
Wylders among us
people named Wylder are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 4,197 born in 2025 was named Wylder
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Wylder
- #669
- Wylder on the 2025 chart
- #290
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Wylder went to 407 boys in 2025, but Wilder is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 1,150, which makes it the 290th most-given boys’ name of the year — 379 places above the chart.
- Wilder743
- Wylder407
About 1 boy in 1,485 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 4,197 for Wylder 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 Jamil test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Wylder's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jamil climbed just as high around 1978, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jamil's path sketches the road Wylder is walking now.
Wylder is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Wylder is headed
Wylder looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 50% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Wylder beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Wylder in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Sounds like a word everyone already knows, so no one has to be taught how to say it.
- The Wy- spelling has English precedent in Wyatt, Wynn and Wyndham, so it reads as a spelling rather than a typo.
- Sits in the well-established surname-as-first-name tradition alongside Sawyer, Parker and Cooper.
- Short forms come easily: Wy, Wyl, and the longer Wylie.
- Wilder is the older and better-known spelling, so expect a lifetime of gentle corrections — on forms, on rosters, in email. Saying it aloud won't help, since both spellings sound the same.
- The meaning is right there in plain English, which means the wild jokes will arrive early and often, from teachers as much as classmates.
- This name's entire history as a given name is recent, so there are effectively no grown Wylders yet. Some parents like being early to a name; others prefer one that has already been tested by a few generations.
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Wylder
Masculine · Middle English roots · #669 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Wylders are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,500 people named Wylder are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Wylder?
- Wylder is one of 2 recorded spellings. Wilder is the more common one — 743 births in 2025 against 407 for Wylder.
- How popular is the name Wylder in 2025?
- Wylder ranks #669 among US boy names in 2025, with 407 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Wylder?
- About 1 in every 4,197 US boys born in 2025 was named Wylder — 407 in all.
- Will my child share the name Wylder with classmates?
- Wylder will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Wylder
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ahmad#669 · Major#669 · Davis#668 · Jaxton#667 · Wilson#672 · Benicio#672 · Chaim#666 · Vincenzo#674
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Wylder? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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